The list of the most influential people in the world is rich.

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The world's population is growing daily, and we have already reached the mark of 7 billion. However, not everyone can boast of being able to change the course of history. On our planet, only a small percentage of such people are a kind of elite, people who have reached unprecedented heights and are "at the helm" of world development.

The authoritative publication Forbes constantly makes a selection of the most influential people on the planet. Participants are selected based on a pivot table. Surprisingly, the selection conditions are very simple: applicants are compared by the number of people who are subject to them and popularity.

The most influential people in the world for 2017, according to Forbes:

Mark Zuckerberg

The last place is occupied by Mark Zuckerberg. He is the youngest representative of this rating. The founder of Facebook is only 32 years old, and he has already reached unprecedented heights. He is also the youngest member of the TOP 10 richest people in the world.

Surprisingly, it is almost twice as young as its main competitors. This year, the billionaire has significantly improved his position and has confidently entered the top ten since the end of the twenty.

At the moment, his fortune is estimated at 59 billion dollars. However, the young businessman does not suffer from star fever at all and leads a very modest life. He also donates significant amounts to charity.

Mark said that by the end of this year he wants to donate $ 3 billion to a kind of charity - the structure that will receive the investment is dedicated to the eradication of all existing diseases on Earth today.

Narenda Modi

The penultimate one is Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi. Every year is more and more successful for Modi. Popularity among Indians is steadily growing.
It is noteworthy that even the harsh financial reform did not diminish his popularity. Painful changes were made as part of the fight against corruption. In the autumn of 2016, the prime minister issued an order that states the cancellation of the two most nominal denominations.

Larry Page

A well-known figure on the Internet, it is Larry who is one of the main developers of the best Google search engine. In 2016, the company was completely reorganized and now Google is a subsidiary of Alphabet. Larry is elected to the post of chairman of the board.

Bill Gates

Larry was overtaken by a no less famous person - Bill Gates. He is the founder of the world famous Windows company, which is a world leader in software development. The richest man in the world, with a fortune exceeding $ 80 billion.

Janet Yellen

Leading US economist, Janet Yellen, is almost in the middle of our top. Concurrently, she is also the head of the US Federal Reserve System. It controls all activities of banking and other financial institutions.

It's funny, but it is very popular among ordinary Americans. This is ensured thanks to her simple approach and the ability to clearly express her thoughts in an accessible form.

Pope Francis

Pope Francis, head of the Vatican, is ranked fifth. He is also the oldest member of the TOP, because he recently turned 80 years old.
It is worth noting that a solid age does not at all prevent Francis from maintaining a huge amount of vital energy and inspiring people on the true path. After all, it is he who directs a huge flock to perform various good deeds.

Xi Jinping

The fourth place is occupied by the President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping. In 2012, he was elected to the position and immediately set to work in the country. He became famous for his fight against corruption. The population is extremely supportive of his activities, due to the high degree of openness.

Angela Merkel

It is quite predictable that Angela Merkel has entered the top three this year. He is a very unusual person, but at the same time remains a prominent figure in political life.
The German chancellor, according to Forbes, can compete with Russia's influence in the West. The ambitious politician was able to relieve tension within the European Union and coped with the huge crowds of emigrants flooding into Germany.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump is in second place. Surpassing his predecessor, Barack Obama, who fell to forty-eighth after third place, Trump confidently entered the top ten most influential people on the planet.

Recall that earlier Trump was at the very bottom of the rating, but the rapid rise provided him with the presidency.

The ambitious politician who came to power with the slogan "Make America Great Again" immediately set to work.

Vladimir Putin

The first place in the ranking is occupied by Vladimir Putin. According to Forbes, he is the most powerful person in the world. Taking the first mark for the fourth time in a row, the politician proved that he is deservedly considered the most famous and popular person, whose influence on society simply cannot be denied.

The annual ranking of the most authoritative American financial and economic magazine Forbes identified 74 people whose actions have an impact on the whole world. Putin has once again consolidated his leadership by topping the list of the most influential people in the world. Recall that the President of the Russian Federation heads the list for 4 years. To compile the list, the editorial board of the magazine analyzed hundreds of candidates around the world and identified world leaders based on four criteria.

TOP 5 most influential people in the world

1. Vladimir Putin

According to the editors, Putin is one of the few world leaders who does what he wants and achieves his goal. Russia, Syria, even the election of an American president - the Russian leader does not go unnoticed, and his actions, one way or another, influence the course of events. Putin's approval rating reaches an all-time high, annually restoring Russian influence abroad.

2. Donald Trump

President-elect of the United States and the first billionaire head, who in a short period managed to have the strongest influence on the political picture of America. Insensitivity to scandals and strong congressional support, along with his own financial resources, estimated at billions of dollars, allowed Trump to take second place in the rankings.

3. Angela Merkel

One of six high-ranking and influential women in the world in the list, taking an honorable third place. Angela Merkel is the Chancellor of Germany and the most powerful backbone of the European Union. She brought her country to the top of the EU, and she herself became the most influential woman politician in the world.

4. Xi Jinping

The Chinese statesman and politician, while world states are busy with domestic political problems, is actively developing a project to spread China's influence to every corner of the planet.

The spiritual leader of more than a billion Catholics and an active peaceful politician completes the top five of world leaders.

Changes in the ranking compared to 2015

The Russian representative and participant in the rating was the billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who managed to climb to the 58th line. The last year of Barack Obama's presidency, as predicted, weakened his influence and shifted him to 48th place in the rankings. According to one of the criteria - own financial flows managed by the candidate - 7th place was taken by the richest man in the world, Bill Gates. King of Saudi Arabia Salman ibn Abdul-Aziz al-Saud, who owns 20% of the world's oil reserves, was considered in the same direction. He was placed in 16th place. The new ranking includes 11 newcomers who were not included in the list before. Theresa May, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, is one of them, ranked 13th. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who previously appeared on the 2011 list, has also joined the newcomers. Today it occupies the 56th position. UN Secretary-General António Guterres, 7 years later, was again included in the list, awarding 36th place.
Of the influential women, 6th place was awarded to Janet Yellen - Chairman of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve, 25th place - Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde. One of the youngest participants in the ranking, who was on the 10th line, was 32-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, the developer and founder of the social network Facebook. 43rd place was taken by the supreme leader of the DPRK, Kim Jong-un (33 years old). Forbes claims that the "influential" ranking is a subjective list of the world's elite. These are strong personalities who really "rule the world", but their positions may weaken with the advent of more powerful and influential candidates.

1. Angela Merkel

Federal Chancellor, Germany

Age: 61

Place of residence: Berlin, Germany

Family status: married

For the 11th time, Merkel has taken first place in the annual Forbes ranking of the most powerful women. She is the first female politician in Europe to have been in power for 16 consecutive years. Merkel helped the country cope with a recession during the global crisis and saved the eurozone's weakest link, Greece, from collapse. Even the refugee crisis that erupted in Europe, from which Germany suffered the most, did not shake Merkel's position in the ranking of influential women.

2. Hillary Clinton

US presidential candidate

Age: 68

Placeresidence: Chappaqua, New York

Family status: married

Children: one Daughter

Clinton came in second for the first time since announcing her 2016 presidential run. Today, she remains the most likely candidate for the Democratic Party. If Clinton becomes the first female president of the United States, this will not be her first major achievement - she is the only first lady to become a senator in the US Congress, a candidate for the presidency of the country, and then secretary of state.

Clinton's memoir Hard Choices, published in 2014, became a bestseller, in the book she talks about her work as US Secretary of State.

Clinton's popularity among voters was shaken only by the scandal with her mail, when Hillary was accused that, as head of the State Department in 2009-2013, she, contrary to the rules, used private e-mail, and not the state one, setting up a personal server at home. Because of this, government letters could be hacked or fall into the hands of foreign intelligence agencies. Clinton publicly acknowledged her mistake.

In 2014, Clinton became a grandmother for the first time: her daughter Chelsea gave birth to a girl, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky.

3. Janet Yellen

US Federal Reserve Chairman

Age: 69

Placeresidence: Washington

Family status: married

Janet Yellen becomes the first woman to serve as chairman of the US Federal Reserve.

Yellen opposes the idea of ​​some members of Congress to conduct the first ever comprehensive audit of the Fed. “The independence of the Central Bank in conducting monetary policy is considered the best practice for Central Banks around the world,” retorted the head of the regulator. “Scientific research, I think, has left no doubt that independent central banks perform better.”

Yellen's first term ends in February 2018.

4 Melinda Gates

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Co-Chair

Age: 51

Placeresidence: Medina, Washington

Family status: married

Children: three

Melinda Gates is one of the world's leading philanthropists. Since the founding of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, more than $33 billion has been awarded in grants. Gates is sure that it is necessary to organize events for the target audience, monitor data and establish global cooperation between countries and foundations. She personally determines the direction of the fund's development and evaluates its effectiveness. Now one of the main issues that her foundation focuses on is the health of women in developing countries, equal rights for women and educational opportunities for women around the world.

By order of the spouses, within 20 years after the death of the last co-founder, all funds must be spent and the foundation will curtail its activities. Gates is now investing $17.5 million to address the crisis with migrants from the Middle East.

Read more about how Melinda Gates became one of the most influential patrons of the world -

5. Mary Barra

General Motors President

Age: 54

Placeresidence: Novi, Michigan

Family status: married

Children: two

Mary Barra, the first female CEO of the auto giant, has been ranked the fifth most powerful woman by Forbes for the second year in a row. The reason is her success as head of GM. Barra was appointed in January 2014 and endured a very difficult first year: within months of taking office, she was involved in court hearings (the company was accused of killing 74 and injuring 126 people), authorized the recall of 30 million vehicles, and withstood pressure from investors who demanded returning money to shareholders. In October, Barra unveiled the company's strategy for the future, with Cadillac set to become a global luxury brand, with strong emphasis on sales growth in China and technological innovation. Under Barr's leadership, GM gained financial discipline and was not afraid of difficult decisions, such as closing branches in Russia, Australia, Indonesia, or the exit of the Chevrolet brand from Europe due to low profitability. Barra is a 35-year GM veteran who joined the company at age 18 while studying electrical engineering at university.

6. Christine Lagarde

Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund

Age: 60

Placeresidence: Washington DC

Family status: Unmarried

Children: two

First woman to lead a financial institution with 188 member countries. On February 19, 2016, she was re-elected to this post. She spent most of her first years in the job dealing with the financial crisis. Lagarde now predicts a 3.5 percent annual global growth of the world economy. She calls such figures “mediocre indicators” and believes that slow growth is part of the “new reality”.

Lagarde actively defends the rights of working women. “All countries will be able to save money and increase productivity if women have access to the labor market,” the head of the IMF is sure. “It's not just a matter of morality, philosophy or equal opportunity. This is a matter of cause and effect in economics. It doesn't take much intelligence to understand that." Born in France, Lagarde worked as an employment and antitrust lawyer in the United States before becoming French finance minister.

7. Sheryl Sandberg

COO Facebook

Age: 46

Placeresidence: Utterton, California

Family status: widow

Children: two

At Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg is responsible for sales, marketing, business development, people and communications. Under her leadership, the company improved its performance and changed the strategy of working with mobile applications. She became the first woman on the board of directors of the company.

Two years ago, she became the best-selling author of Dare to Take Action, which earned her the support of many famous women. After the release of the book, thousands of followers of Sandberg's philosophy appeared, a sequel, Dare to Take Action - for Graduates, was released, and Sony Pictures obtained consent to shoot a film based on the book. In May 2014, Sandberg became a member of The Giving Pledge, promising to give at least half of her fortune to charity.

In May 2015, Sandberg lost her husband, Dave Goldberg, who ran the online survey service SurveyMonkey.

9. Margaret Whitman

CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Age: 59

Citizenship: USA

Family status: married

Children: four

At the end of 2015 Whitman headed Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Hewlett-Packard, one of the oldest IT companies in the market with $52 billion in revenue, made a partition on November 1, 2015, for which it had been preparing for more than a year. Since the announcement of the division in October 2014 and until the end of October 2015, the value of HP shares fell by 17%. The corporate business - servers, data centers, network solutions and consulting - was allocated to an independent company Hewlett Packard Enterprise. At the same time, the separated part behaves like the main company. It retains 80% of the headcount, a wide product line from servers and network equipment to corporate software and technical support. Prior to the split, Whitman served as CEO of the entire corporation, and even earlier, from 1998 to 2008, she was the CEO and president of eBay.

10 Ana Patricia Botin

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the financial and credit group Santander

Age: 55

Citizenship: Spain

Family status: married

Children: three

In 2014, Ana Patricia Botin became one of the most powerful women in the banking industry, leading the largest bank in the Eurozone. She took over as chairman of the board following the death of her father from a heart attack. In recent years, the bank has been criticized for lack of service, so the first thing Botin did was to introduce new programs for clients. Thanks to her efforts, it is now possible to carry out, for example, operations with cryptocurrency in the bank. The situation in Brazil and the UK, where the bank's branches operate, can greatly undermine its position. In May 2016, Botin was quick to reassure clients that the bank would remain in the UK even if the country decided to leave the European Union.

56. Elvira Nabiullina

Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia

Age: 52

Placeresidence: Moscow, Russia

Family status: married

Children: two

Elvira Nabiullina is included in the ranking of the most influential women in the world for the third time, in 2014 she was in 72nd place, in 2015 - in 71st, in 2016 - in 56th. Nabiullina became the head of the Central Bank in 2013, becoming the first woman in the history of the G8 countries in such a position, and the regulator of the world's tenth economy with a country's GDP of $1.8 trillion was in her management. The end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015 were difficult for Nabiullina, Russia was in the midst of a crisis, and the chairman of the Central Bank had to make a number of difficult decisions. Oil prices fell, followed by the depreciation of the ruble. Sanctions against Russia also played their role. The Central Bank has spent several billion rubles to stabilize the ruble exchange rate, but it is still far from the crisis.

“The Russian president influences almost every corner of the planet. At home, in Syria, and in the US presidential election, Putin continues to get what he wants.

The Russian factor became central to American pre-election discussions after the Democratic Party, which nominated Hillary Clinton as its presidential candidate, admitted that its servers had been hacked by anonymous hackers. A short time later, a number of American intelligence agencies linked the cyberattack to Russia and, in particular, the Kremlin.

Leaks from confidential Democratic emails have damaged the Democrats' image and were one of the factors that brought down Clinton's ratings and led to the victory of Republican Donald Trump. Trump himself, the already elected president of the United States, meanwhile does not hide the fact that he is going to establish contact with Vladimir Putin and reconsider the issue of annexing Crimea to Russia.

Trump-linked financier Carter Page, who also spoke publicly about the Crimea issue in a conciliatory vein, recently visited Moscow.

With a likely ally like Donald Trump in the White House, Putin's power could be unlimited for years to come.

Director General of the APEC Agency for Political and Economic Communications, Dmitry Orlov, believes that coverage of Putin's influence on the American elections helped his authority, regardless of how real this influence was. “The fact that this was discussed strengthened his image positioning,” the source of Gazeta.Ru is sure.

Orlov also notes the role of Russia in politics in the Middle East, in particular, in the Syrian campaign. “Putin, having, in general, few resources and playing against several opponents, managed to win,” he said.

Political scientist Konstantin Kalachev was not surprised by this situation. “Putin is one of the few world leaders who is not fettered by anything and can freely form his own agenda,” said the interlocutor of Gazeta.Ru. “If German Chancellor Angela Merkel rules a country that is stronger than Russia economically, and Barack Obama leads the United States, a country that is more powerful in military potential, then Putin has a lot of authority in itself.”

December 15 Putin arrives in Japan. The main negotiations here will unfold around the territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands. The Russian president has a chance to solve this problem, which has kept Russia and Japan from signing a peace treaty since World War II.

Who is behind Putin

Second place on the Forbes list was given to billionaire and US President Donald Trump for a direct and aggressive challenge to the globalist trends that America began to follow during the Obama presidency. Last year, the eccentric businessman ranked only 72nd.

The third most powerful person in the world is also the most powerful woman. This is Angela Merkel, "German chancellor and mainstay of the European Union," as Forbes put it. The fourth place went to Chinese President Xi Jinping, the fifth - to Pope Francis.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is in 13th place, French President Francois Hollande is in 23rd, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is in 37th.

Photo report: The most powerful people in the world

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58th place went to Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov, the owner of Metalloinvest.

Usmanov is also the richest businessman in Russia after Leonid Mikhelson and Mikhail Fridman.

The current US President Barack Obama is only 48th on this list. “Obama is leaving office at a time of global upheaval; a wave of populism caused political instability in Europe, the beginning of the crisis was the June Brexit of 2016, ”Forbes writes in a commentary.

Political scientist Vyacheslav Smirnov believes that Putin topped the rating at a good moment. “Everything is logical. Former US President Barack Obama is no longer the most influential, and his successor Donald Trump is not yet influential,” Gazeta.Ru’s interlocutor is sure.

However, the expert clarifies that this does not mean that the future American leader will definitely outstrip Putin in the future, it’s just that now the Russian president has no alternative for the Forbes team that compiled the rating.

According to Smirnov, the influence of heads of state can be compared with the influence of heads of companies. It is clear that the larger and more influential the company, the heavier the leader. But another question is how much he is still personally influential and determines the entire policy of his company.

“In America, after all, the president is a product of the system. He expresses not his opinion, but the opinion of the opposing groups. And in Russia, on the contrary, everyone supports the opinion of a single ruler,” Smirnov comments.