Russian president beats Obama to the top of Forbes’ list of the world’s most powerful leaders

Thinking of the world’s most powerful leaders, you would most likely put American president Barack Obama right at the top of your list. 

But, for the second year in a row Russian president Vladimir Putin has beaten Obama to the top of Forbes’ list of the world’s most powerful leaders. 

Here is the top 10, as ranked by Forbes 

1 Vladimir Putin 

2 Barack Obama 

3 Xi Jinping 

4 Pope Francis 

5 Angela Merkel 

6 Janet Yellen 

7 Bill Gates 

8 Mario Draghi 

9 Sergey Brin, Larry Page 

10 David Cameron 

Just to put it in perspective: Russia has in the past year annexed Crimea, stoked a conflict in Ukraine and clinched a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline deal with China, so this kind of does makes Russia and Putin a pretty big deal.

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