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建议 普京----时代年度人物
In a year when Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize and green became the new red, white and blue; when the combat in Iraq showed signs of cooling but Baghdad\\\'s politicians showed no signs of statesmanship; when China, the rising superpower, juggled its pride in hosting next summer\\\'s Olympic Games with its embarrassment at shipping toxic toys around the world; and when J.K. Rowling set millions of minds and hearts on fire with the final volume of her 17-year saga—one nation that had fallen off our mental map, led by one steely and determined man, emerged as a critical linchpin of the 21st century.
Russia lives in history—and history lives in Russia. Throughout much of the 20th century, the Soviet Union cast an ominous shadow over the world. It was the U.S.\\\'s dark twin. But after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Russia receded from the American consciousness as we became mired in our own polarized politics. And it lost its place in the great game of geopolitics, its significance dwarfed not just by the U.S. but also by the rising giants of China and India. That view was always naive. Russia is central to our world—and the new world that is being born. It is the largest country on earth; it shares a 2,600-mile (4,200 km) border with China; it has a significant and restive Islamic population; it has the world\\\'s largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction and a lethal nuclear arsenal; it is the world\\\'s second largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia; and it is an indispensable player in whatever happens in the Middle East. For all these reasons, if Russia fails, all bets are off for the 21st century. And if Russia succeeds as a nation-state in the family of nations, it will owe much of that success to one man, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
No one would label Putin a child of destiny. The only surviving son of a Leningrad factory worker, he was born after what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War, in which they lost more than 26 million people. The only evidence that fate played a part in Putin\\\'s story comes from his grandfather\\\'s job: he cooked for Joseph Stalin, the dictator who inflicted ungodly terrors on his nation.
When this intense and brooding KGB agent took over as President of Russia in 2000, he found a country on the verge of becoming a failed state. With dauntless persistence, a sharp vision of what Russia should become and a sense that he embodied the spirit of Mother Russia, Putin has put his country back on the map. And he intends to redraw it himself. Though he will step down as Russia\\\'s President in March, he will continue to lead his country as its Prime Minister and attempt to transform it into a new kind of nation, beholden to neither East nor West.
TIME\\\'s Person of the Year is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world—for better or for worse. It is ultimately about leadership—bold, earth-changing leadership. Putin is not a boy scout. He is not a democrat in any way that the West would define it. He is not a paragon of free speech. He stands, above all, for stability—stability before freedom, stability before choice, stability in a country that has hardly seen it for a hundred years. Whether he becomes more like the man for whom his grandfather prepared blinis—who himself was twice TIME\\\'s Person of the Year—or like Peter the Great, the historical figure he most admires; whether he proves to be a reformer or an autocrat who takes Russia back to an era of repression—this we will know only over the next decade. At significant cost to the principles and ideas that free nations prize, he has performed an extraordinary feat of leadership in imposing stability on a nation that has rarely known it and brought Russia back to the table of world power. For that reason, Vladimir Putin is TIME\\\'s 2007 Person of the Year.
TIME2007年度人物---普京
在这一年里：戈尔获得诺贝尔和平奖---环保成为新的自由三色旗；伊拉克的战争开始降温，然而巴格达的政客们完全没有表现出政治家风范；中国这个正在崛起的超级大国即将踌躇满志的举办2008夏季奥运会，同时又因被指责将有毒玩具出口到全世界而十分尴尬；罗琳十七年来出版的最后一本哈利波特让数以百万的人们为之兴奋不已；一个我们以为已经衰弱的民族，在一位有着钢铁般意志和魄力的男子的领导下，在21世纪将以世界重要一极的姿态出现。
俄罗斯存在历史中----历史也存在于俄罗斯中。20世纪的大部分时间，苏联就象巨大的阴影笼罩在世界上空---它是美国的黑暗孪生兄弟。自从柏林墙倒塌后，俄罗斯在我们的心里已经不再是个问题，我们转而关心国内的两党政治。俄罗斯在地缘政治中扮演的角色已经不像以往那么重要，它的明显矮化不仅因为美国，还因为中国和印度的崛起。（这样的观点永远都是幼稚的）俄罗斯位于世界的中央---我们则位于边缘。俄罗斯是世界上面积最大的国家，与中国共享4200公里（2600英里）边界。它的穆斯林人口众多且本分。它的大规模杀伤武器库位居世界前列，别忘了它的核武器库。它是仅次于沙特阿拉伯的世界第二大产油国。还是中东事务不可或缺的参与者。基于以上理由，如果俄罗斯倒下了，整个21世纪的历史将毫无悬念。如果它在世界上仍然举足轻重，那么它得感谢一个人---那就是弗拉基米尔 弗拉基米罗维奇 普京。
没人会把普京称为“真命天子”。作为列宁格勒一位普通工人唯一活下来的儿子，他出生在俄罗斯人称之为“伟大的卫国战争”之后（俄罗斯在这场战争里损失了2600万人）。命运如果真的在普京的人生起过作用，不过是他爷爷曾为斯大林做过饭---这位独裁者曾经让整个俄罗斯陷入巨大的恐怖。
当这位强硬的前克格勃特工于2000年就任总统时，发现俄罗斯正处在变成二流国家。凭着不屈不挠的斗志，普京很清楚俄罗斯将往何处去（这就是俄罗斯精神）他让俄罗斯重新站了起来。他试图独自重绘俄罗斯的蓝图。08年三月份起他将不再是俄罗斯的总统，将以总理身份领导这个国家并试图把它塑造成一个新的国家。（走一条区别于西方也区别于东方的道路）
时代年度人物从来不是一种荣誉，不只是记录，也不是超男比赛。这评选顶多是对这个世界的客观认识--是对这个世界最有影响的人，而且正在改变这个世界（无论是变的更好还是变的更坏）的人物的客观承认。它永远是关于领袖---无畏地改变这个世界的领袖。普京当然不是童子军。他不是任何西方意义上的民主派，也不是支持舆论自由的楷模。他主张稳定压倒一切，稳定比自由重要，稳定比选择重要，在俄罗斯百年来难得的就是稳定。究竟他会变成他祖父为之准备早餐的那个人（斯大林曾两次被评为时代年度人物），还是成为一个彼得大帝一样的人（他仰慕彼得大帝）。究竟他是一位改革者还是一个把俄罗斯带回专制时代的独裁者？还要再过十年才会知道。
以自由世界所珍视的原则和理想为代价，他以非凡的领导才能赋予俄罗斯难得的稳定，使俄罗斯重新成为世界的一极。
