President Barack Obama and Dalai Lama

Taylor Swift: Putin - the only world leader to rank in the top 10 - grabbed the global spotlight from the leading divas of pop music: Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Taylor Swift . Aside from the Russian leader, the only non-celebrities to appear in the top 10 were the Dalai Lama , Pakistani female activist Malala Yousafzai and Pope Francis . President Barack Obama narrowly missed the top 10 with 1.4 percent of the votes, while First Lady Michele Obama attracted 1.2 percent, according to Russia Today. Will Putin beat S. Korean singer in TIME s Person of the Year poll The Kremlin s not following it Putin s victory appears all the more incredible when you realize that more than half the votes 57.38 percent were cast inside the United States, according to TIME . The percentage of votes that were cast from Russia has not yet been disclosed. Among the 100 most influential people in the world, as hand selected by the editors of TIME, the Russian leader proved his rock-star credentials by edging out 24-year-old rapper Lee Chae-rin of the South Korean girl-group 2NE1 to claim the number-one spot with 6.95 percent of the votes in the final tally. The Russian leader dominated the charts at a time of unprecedented tensions between Moscow and the West. This decision triggered violent Maidan protests in the capital Kiev, which eventually led to Yanukovich being forced to flee the country in February 2014. US-Russia relations suffered a major setback on November 21, 2013, when then Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich suspended plans for the implementation of an association agreement with the European Union, showing a preference for closer Russian relations. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.