Putin: His way, his strength.

Photo culled from 'Prospect magazine'

A recent CNN special report by Fareed Zakaria titled 'Vladimir Putin, The most powerful man in the world' inspires perspective on Russia's leader and his influence on his people and the wider world.

The program gave an hour-long insight into Putin's rise and the way and manner of the consolidation of his influence on Russian society as he seeks for it to reclaim its place- as he sees it- on the world stage.

Fareed Zakaria has a point when he declares that Putin perhaps comes tops of every world leader by his capacity to control his country's vast strength in a manner that is 'unilateral and unconstrained by other institutions, parties or political forces'.

By his actions of more than twenty years, Vladimir Putin does indeed understand the capacity of raw power to influence the course of events, silence lesser opponents and fire the varied passions burning within the breasts of a people- the average Russian on the streets- thirsting for leadership.

In short, he understands more than perhaps any other world leader today, the nexus between power and people and the way and manner of exploiting this nexus to serve an at times dubious peace, prosperity and certainly, disastrous conflict.

He may well be the most powerful man in the world.