MOSCOW, December 16. /TASS/. Vladimir Putin is politics' Person of the Year for nearly seven out of 10 Russians, pollsters have announced. Crimea's return to Russia and events in Ukraine have fired the public's imagination as top events in 2014, say soundings among 1,600 respondents quizzed in 43 regions.

Results trawled by Russia's Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) were unveiled as agency head Alexander Oslon briefed reporters on Tuesday. Sixty-eight percent of respondents named Russia's head of state as the leading political personality, Oslon said — the president forging ahead of others being rated.

Parliamentary party leaders such as the Liberal Democratic Party's (LDPR) Vladimir Zhirinovsky and the Communist Party's Gennady Zyuganov alongside Russian government members gained support from between one percent and four percent of those questioned.

Four out of ten respondents said developments in Ukraine topped the year's world events, Oslon said. Crimea’s accession to the Russian Federation was named as event of the year in Russia by a third and the Winter Olympics in Sochi ranked second.

Sanctions against Russia over events in Ukraine made the year's top headline for four percent of respondents, followed by developments in Syria, the Ebola virus outbreak and the 2014 FIFA World Cup.