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Putin: world leadership determined by economic, defense capabilities, not ratings

“I don’t know how Forbes made these assessments, it is their business", - Russian President said

MOSCOW, November 23. /TASS/. World leadership is determined by a state’s capabilities, not by ratings, which could be an element of internal political struggle, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview for the TASS special project Top Officials.

“World leadership is determined by a state’s economic and defense capabilities,” Putin said while commenting on a recent Forbes ranking of the world’s most powerful people, which placed the Russian leader on top of the list, followed by US President Barack Obama.

“I don’t know how Forbes made these assessments, it is their business. Perhaps, they do this on purpose to exacerbate my relations with Barack Obama, placing him second,” he said. 

“The President of the United States and I know each other. I can’t say that we have quite close relationships but he is a clever person and can evaluate all this. This could be a method of internal political struggle in the United States, especially on the eve of the elections to the Senate,” Putin said.

“I don’t want now to give an assessment of the US President’s steps on the international scene, and we have a lot of contradictions and our views frequently diverge and, all the more so, I don’t want to assess his internal political initiatives as this is a separate theme but I know that Obama realistically assesses what is going on in his country,” he said.

“I’m confident that he considers these ratings as an element of struggle aimed at causing him damage,” the Russian president said.

Putin said he doubts that US media is independent.

“How can it be independent, if it works in pair with the political opponents of the head of the White House? There is no independence in this regard. This is full dependence and the servicing of certain forces. But these are my assumptions,” he said.