Putin is Time magazine's "Person of the Year"

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Time magazine named Russian President Vladimir Putin its "Person of the Year" for 2007 on Wednesday, saying he had returned his country from chaos to "the table of world power" though at a cost to democratic principles.

Putin, a former KGB official picked from relative obscurity to be prime minister in 1999 by then-President Boris Yeltsin, will appear on the cover of a special issue of Time as the person the editors believe had the greatest impact on events, for better or worse.

"He's not a good guy, but he's done extraordinary things," said Time managing editor Richard Stengel, who announced Putin's selection on NBC's "Today Show."

"He's a new tsar of Russia and he's dangerous in the sense that he doesn't care about civil liberties; he doesn't care about free speech; he cares about stability. But stability is what Russia needed and that's why Russians adore him."

Time magazine said on its Web site that Putin, the son of a factory worker whose grandfather cooked for Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, had led Russia with persistence, a sharp vision and a sense that he embodied the spirit of "Mother Russia."

The Russian president beat out four rivals for the Time distinction: former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who was Time's No. 2 choice, followed by British author J.K. Rowling, Chinese President Hu Jintao and the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus.

PUTIN AND NATIONAL PRIDE

Kremlin deputy spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Time's choice was an acknowledgment of Putin's role in helping Russia regain its national pride but rejected the magazine's concerns about freedom in Russia as a product of "stereotypes of the past."