OSINFO - Open Sources Information

Time knows that many will find its choice of Vladimir Putin for Man of the Year shocking—but any publicity is good publicity! The magazine presents a peremptory defense: the Man of the Year “is not a boy scout,” he is not a democrat, but he numbers among the very powerful, those who shape the world’s destiny “for better or for worse.”

Time does not specify this “worse.” The reader can take his pick: Putin’s army has massacred the Chechnyan population; the Czar of the Year’s police force has essentially eliminated the freedom of the mass media, ready to assassinate courageous journalists in order to keep the others in line. On the other hand, Time is quite specific concerning the “better” that Putin brings to his people and to the world: a “stability” that Russia hasn’t known for a century.

But can one call it “stability” when the various mafias in power demolish and execute each other in the Kremlin’s shadow, to the point where a general in the Federal Security Bureau (FSB), the head of one of the factions, uses the front page of a Moscow daily paper to call for a cease-fire, lest the beautiful power machine crumble?

André Glucksmann is a French philosopher and author of many books, including The Master Thinkers and the forthcoming Mai 68 expliqué à Nicolas Sarkozy, co-authored with his son Raphaël.

Translated by Ralph C. Hancock and John C. Hancock.