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Putin Named Russia's Person Of The Year, Despite Economic Chaos

Putin Gets Really Ironically Timed Honour Amid Economic Chaos
Asa Bennett

Russia's economy is plunging further into chaos, with its currency slipping to new lows and its central bank warning that more measures will be needed to turn things around after an emergency interest rate hike to 17%.

Tensions over the Ukraine crisis and Russia's annexation of Crimea - resulting in Western economic sanctions - have clearly started to hurt as the currency fell to nearly 80 roubles to the US dollar.

However, this has not stopped Russians naming their president, Vladimir Putin, as their political "Person of The Year", with nearly seven out of ten of those surveyed backing him, giving him the title for the 15th year running.

Polling 1,600 people in 43 regions, Russia's Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) found that Russians saw the crisis in Ukraine, their country's annexation of Crimea and the Winter Olympics in Sochi as the events of the year.

To mark Putin topping the polls yet again, here are 15 photos of the Russian premier that show how he may continue to have such an appeal.

Putin's 15 Person Of The Year-Ish Moments
Putin isn't afraid of horses(01 of15)
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FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010 file photo then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin rides a horse in the foothills of Karatash, near Abakan, the capital of the Khakassia region in Siberia. Putin has become alternately notorious and beloved for an array of adventurous stunts, including posing with a tiger cub and riding a horse bare-chested. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Government Press Service, file) (credit:AP)
Nor bears (02 of15)
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FILE- In this Thursday, April 29, 2010 file photo then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, right, fixes a radio beacon on a neck of a polar bear, which was anaesthetized, during a visit to a research institute at the Franz Josef Land archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Putin has become alternately notorious and beloved for an array of adventurous stunts, including posing with a tiger cub and riding a horse bare-chested. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Government Press Service, file) (credit:AP)
Putin just happened to be holding this (03 of15)
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FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008 file pool photo then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin holds a tranquilizer gun in a Russian Academy of Sciences reserve in Russia's Far East. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, POOL, file) (credit:AP)
Putin hates being caught in his fighter jet(04 of15)
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FILE - In this March 20, 2000 file photo, President Vladimir Putin, wearing a blue helmet and an oxygen mask, sits in Su-27 fighter jet after his flight into the war zone in Chechnya, in Grozny, Russia. (AP Photo/ITAR-TASS, Presidential Press Service, file) (credit:AP)
Putin is a bit of a horse whisperer (05 of15)
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A picture released on March 6, 2010 shows Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stroking a horse in the Karatash area, near the town of Abakan, during his working trip to Khakassia, on February 25, 2010. AFP PHOTO - RIA-NOVOSTI / ALEKSEY DRUZHININ (Photo credit should read ALEKSEY DRUZHININ/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
Putin tries to act casual (06 of15)
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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin rides a horse during his vacation outside the town of Kyzyl in Southern Siberia on August 3, 2009. AFP PHOTO / RIA-NOVOSTI / ALEXEY DRUZHININ (Photo credit should read ALEXEY DRUZHININ/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
This is how Putin likes to travel (07 of15)
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FILE - In this Wednesday Sept. 5, 2012, file photo Russian President Vladimir Putin, foreground, flies in a motorized hang glider alongside a Siberian white crane, on the Yamal Peninsula, in Russia. . (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, Presidential Press Service) (credit:AP)
These trophies? Putin just found them...(08 of15)
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FILE- In this Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011 photo then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin carries two pieces of archaeological trophies he discovered during diving near an archeological excavation of an ancient Greek port on the Taman Peninsula, about 1150 kilometers (720 miles) south of Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, pool, file) (credit:AP)
Putin loves his bikes (09 of15)
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In this Monday, Aug. 29, 2011 photo, then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, center left, and leader of Nochniye Volki (the Night Wolves) biker group, Alexander Zaldostanov, also known as Khirurg (the Surgeon), right, ride bikes at a motor bikers' festival in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Russia. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, POOL, file) (credit:AP)
Putin tries his own version of Top Gear (10 of15)
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Vladimir Putin, center, and leader of the Night Wolves biker group, Alexander Zaldostanov, right, pose for a press attending a meeting of motorbikers at their camp at Gasfort lake near Sevastopol in Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula, Saturday, July 24, 2010. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool) (credit:AP Photo)
Putin graciously lets someone overtake him(11 of15)
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Vladimir Putin, center, and leader of the Night Wolves biker group, Alexander Zaldostanov, right, as they ride bikes at a motor bikers' festival in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Russia, Monday, Aug. 29, 2011. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, pool) (credit:AP)
Putin's next cabinet? (12 of15)
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Vladimir Putin (C) poses for a photo with members of the 'Night Wolves' bikers' movement after watching a friendly football match between of Serbia's FC Crvena Zvezda Belgrade and Russia's FC Zenit St Petersburg junior teams at Marakana Stadium in Belgrade, on March 23, 2011. (ALEXEI NIKOLSKY/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
Putin ponders his next lair(13 of15)
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Vladimir Putin pays a surprise visit to the headquarters of the 'Night Wolves' biker club in Moscow on July 7, 2009. (ALEXEY DRUZHININ/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
One of his many fans approaches(14 of15)
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(credit:Getty)
Putin vs water. There's only one winner. (15 of15)
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(credit:Getty)
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