Recently I found out that Russian President Vladimir Putin was ranked by Forbes Magazine as the most powerful person in the world; this was the second year in a row that he has earned this title. I decided that writing an article on the subject while weaving in some Russian sentences might be a good way to challenge your knowledge of Russian, while at the same time giving you some interesting facts. Your goal is to translate the Russian sentences accurately based on the surrounding context. After you are done, you can compare your version with my translation given at the very bottom of this post 🙂 .

1. Судя по достижениям Путина за последний год, ему, да и России в целом, было чем заняться. They hosted the Winter Games in Sochi, they annexed Crimea, fought a small war in the Ukraine, and struck a deal to build a $70 billion gas pipeline with China. 2. Учитывая вышеизложенное, нельзя не согласиться с тем, что президент Путин установил довольно высокую планку.

Looking at other criteria that Forbes used to measure and rank the world’s most powerful people, I was impressed that he was given the title again. The first criteria was that the candidate be leader of many people. In 2013, Russia had about 142 million people and ranked 9th among the world’s most populated countries according to worldatlas.com. 3. Сравните этот факт с тем, что папа Римский в принципе является лидером одного с лишним миллиарда католиков – теоретически он может оказывать такое же влияние на людей, которое продемонстрировал Ганди, когда ему удалось избавить Индию от долгосрочного британского ига без какого-либо насилия.

Scope and use of power were also yardsticks. 4. Согласно статье из businessinsider.com, Россия имеет вторую по мощности армию в мире, в то время как США находится на первом месте, а Китай – на третьем. Since 2008, Russia has increased its military spending by nearly a third and it is expected to continue to grow. Currently, Russia has the largest number of tanks in the world. Putin certainly had this advantage when Crimea was annexed and he wielded the largest sword with the events transpiring in Ukraine.

Without a strong economic structure, it would be difficult to yield power and by inking the world’s largest construction project with China, Putin certainly is in a good position. The $70 billion gas pipeline with China will build on the money Russia already makes from the export of oil and natural gas. According to Investopedia, Russia’s GDP ranks 58th in the world but this will likely change for the better. Since military spending is expected to increase over the coming years, President Putin must be confident that the GDP will grow to keep pace – we may recall what happened many years ago when military spending broke the back of the economy.

Many internet resources paint Putin in an unfavorable light. 5. Это частично связано с несколькими факторами. Putin was president for two terms totaling eight years and prime minister for two terms – although they were not both four-year terms – suggesting tampering with the voting process; his government controls over half of Gazprom, the largest natural gas extractor in the world; he has a strong and growing military; and he was a Lieutenant Colonel in the KGB. Add to this the whole Ukranian/Crimean situation, the fact that most Russians live relatively poorly compared to those in other nations, and you have adequate reason to have suspicious to negative feelings towards Time Magazine’s 2007 Person of the Year.

On the other hand, Mr. Putin fits quite nicely into my post 🙂 !

I look forward to reading you translations in the comment section!

Всего хорошего!

1. Judging by Putin’s last year accomplishments, he, and Russia as a whole, had their hands full.

2. With that in mind you have to admit that President Putin has been quite ambitions in his achievements.

3. Compare this to the fact that Pope Francis is the supposed spiritual leader of over a billion Catholics – he could potentially wield the same power Gandhi did when he overthrew the long-standing British rule in India without violence.

4. According to an article in businessinsider.com in 2014, Russia had the world’s second most powerful army, behind the U.S. and ahead of China.

5. This is partly due to several factors.