Never ones to turn down the opportunity to act like petulant children, the Kremlin has hit out at Time magazine's decision to name President Volodymyr Zelensky and the spirit of Ukraine as "Person of the Year."
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Despite having quite a lot to talk about at the moment – not least a faltering economy and an increasingly precarious military situation in Ukraine – Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov found the time on Thursday to make sure the world knew just how annoyed they were.
“The publication's editorial line does not go beyond the European mainstream, which is absolutely blinkered, anti-Russian and frantically Russophobic,” he fumed.
The comments came after Zelensky was ranked "Person of the Year" by the magazine on Wednesday and the "Most Influential" person in Europe by Politico on Thursday.
Time noted its choice to nominate Zelensky was the "the most clear-cut in memory," hailing the leader's decision to remain in Kyiv and rally his country amid Russia's offensive.
The military operation has proved transformative for the 44-year-old former comedian, catapulting him from embattled leader of a struggling European outlier to a global household name and standard-bearer of opposition to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
He has rallied Western support for his country in almost daily foreign calls and meetings.
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Putin, who was Time's person of the year in 2007, is increasingly isolated from the West.
On Wednesday Putin once again proved just how divorced from reality he is, reeling off a series of truly deluded remarks during a televised meeting of the Kremlin's human rights council.
Struggling to put a brave face on a war he is losing badly, the Russian president tried his very best to make it sound like the invasion of Ukraine was all going according to plan. "Of course, it might be a lengthy process," he said.
The Kremlin’s original invasion plan envisaged a complete takeover of Ukraine in a matter of days.
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