Russian leader Vladimir Putin is the geopolitical winner of the year, the US Wall Street Journal's Editor at Large, Gerard Baker wrote.
Baker noted that Putin has achieved success this year, as Kiev's counteroffensive proved unsuccessful, and the Russian economy withstood Western sanctions. Europe's position, in turn, is weakening, and the support of Kiev from the United States has "is fracturing," according to him.
Earlier, the American Time magazine included Putin in the list of contenders for the title of Person of the Year, however, the US singer Taylor Swift received the title. Time recognized Putin as the Person of the Year in 2007 and repeatedly included him in the list of one hundred most influential people.
The Ukrainian counteroffensive began on June 4, and three months later, the Russian leader declared it a failure. As the president said on the December live Q&A session with journalists and citizens, while the West gave Ukraine everything it promised, and even more, the Russian Armed Forces destroyed 2,300 armored vehicles of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including 747 tanks, both Soviet and Western (Leopard, AMX, Challenger 2). According to the Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, Kiev did not achieve its goals in any of the directions.