ABSURDUS apoPLEXUS

Despite the economy's meltdown and the international isolation (or partly as a reaction to the latter), Putin has once more been polled in Russia as "Man of the Year".

 

Granted, there is a year long, 24/7 all-media promotional blitz of Putin as the best thing that ever happened to Russia after the invention of vodka (the latest TV ad for his appearance on state-run Russia-1 channel speaks volumes). Granted also that possible oppositional figures that could in theory compete with Putin for the public's admiration are either shunned by the media (in effect almost all of them Kremlin-run by now) or cast in an unflattering light. Or in jail.

 

But the pollsters' methods may also has something to do with his overwhelming and enduring popularity. For example, for this poll the question asked was:

 

Who do you think deserves the title Man of the Year?

(1) Vladimir Putin

(2) The opposition politician you didn't vote for

(3) This other opposition politician languishing in jail

(4) That other guy you don't know anything about

 

This latest accolade of "Man of the Year" is just one of a long list of titles he has been awarded lately by the Russian public. Other honors and honorifics he has been lauded with include:

 

·         Man of the Century

·         Person of the Millennium

·         Human of the All Time

·         Sentient organism of Ever

·         Leader of Recorded History

·         Personality of North & South Hemispheres

·         Mr. Congeniality

·         First Citizen of the Cosmos