Zelensky, DeSantis, Putin make it to Time 100 ‘leaders’ list

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) are among those featured on Time magazine’s 2022 “100 Most Influential People” list. 

President Biden writes in a profile of Zelensky that “the people of Ukraine have a leader worthy of their bravery and resilience, as citizens across the country—shopkeepers and soldiers, tailors and truck drivers—fight for their homes and their freedom.”

“The nations of the free world, inspired by the example of President Zelensky, are more united, more determined, more purposeful than at any point in our recent memory,” Biden added.

But Zelensky’s nemesis, who has been accused of multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity, also makes the list. Putin’s profile was written by his top Russian critic, Alexei Navalny, who is currently serving nine years in maximum security prison on fraud charges. 

Navalny wrote that Putin “reminded us once again that a path that begins with ‘just a little election rigging’ always ends with a dictatorship.”

He added that the lesson the world forgot was that dictatorship always leads to war. 

Time editor-in-chief and CEO Edward Felsenthal shared how the team chose who to include on the list, saying Zelensky and Putin are “the poles of this list, and of this moment.”

“When our team gets together to choose the TIME100, we have one barometer: influence. Who shaped the year? Who stood up? Who stood out? Influence, of course, may be for good or for ill — a dichotomy never more visible than in this year’s TIME 100, which includes both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky,” Felsenthal said. 

“The Russian dictator behind a brutal war, and his foe, the Ukrainian President, whose leadership has made him a rare heroic figure in our divisive time,” he added.

DeSantis, who was profiled by Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), was lauded by the former presidential candidate for his approach that has “allowed Florida to emerge from the pandemic as a national model of personal freedom, economic growth, environmental protection, and education excellence.”

Bush wrote that “while the Beltway crowd may not like his style, it’s his record that will become his legacy.”

DeSantis has been pegged as a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate and routinely polls in second place behind former President Trump among would-be GOP White House hopefuls.

Others in the leaders section of the annual list include future Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Chinese President Xi Jinping and podcaster Joe Rogan.