Heads of Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholic Churches Appear on List of Top 100 Most Influential Persons of Ukraine
Within the framework of the annual project TOP-100, the magazine Correspondent on 19 August listed the names of 100 most influential people of Ukraine. The TOP-100 include politicians, businessmen, religious figures, workers of culture and sportsmen. To calculate the ratings the journalists considered the opinions of 16 experts in different regions. According to the editors of the magazine, TOP-100 of 2011 is an attempt to evaluate the influence of individual personalities at the new stage of Ukrainian history.
Viktor Yanukovych has taken the first place in the rating of TOP-100 of 2011. According to the edition, the strict vertical built by him in a few months and quite a high rating of Yanukovych himself and his Party of Regions seem to leave no chance to the opposition. It appears that this political force has come to power in for real and for a long time. However, the analysts are convinced that this status quo is temporary for one cannot call the present regime a team able to renew the country with reforms. And the methods currently used by the present top management of Ukraine to lead the country out of the crisis are estimated in different ways and as the result can drag the rating of Yanukovych down.
The second place in the TOP-100 has for the third year in a row been taken by an entrepreneur from Donetsk, Rinat Akhmetov, the top Eastern European billionaire (17.8 billion $ US). His position is due to his powerful influence on the state’s economy, important role in the party of the regime and active part in the sports life of the country.
The third place was taken by the head of the presidential administration, one of the most influential people of the Party of Regions, Serhii Liovochkin.
The first five persons include also Premier Mykola Azarov and First Vice Premier Andrii Kliuiev.
Only 13 persons in the rating do not represent politics or business. Four of them are religious figures, two journalists, two musicians, two cinema people and three sportsmen. The head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Volodymyr Sabodan takes the 27th place in the rating of the TOP-100, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate, Patriarch Filaret takes the 44th place, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Patriarch Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) takes the 61st place and the ex-head of UGCC, Patriarch Lubomyr (Husar) the 81st place in the rating.
