A spokesman for Russian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin lambasted Time magazine over its upcoming cover story, “Russia’s Incredible Shrinking Prime Minister.”
“We can be pretty sure the author of these words is a Russophobe and Putin-phobe,” Dmitry Peskov told Kommersant FM radio on Friday.
“This phobia clouds his eyes and does not let him judge reality objectively,” Peskov added.
The story, written by the Time correspondent in Moscow Simon Shuster, says that Putin is losing control of the country, despite the fact that he is favored to win the presidential elections in March and has already had the top Kremlin job for two terms between 2000 and 2008.
“His grip on power is shakier than ever. That makes the world a more dangerous place,” reads the subhead on the magazine’s cover.
The story will appear in the European edition of the weekly on March 5, the day after Russian presidential elections.
It is Putin’s fourth Time cover and the first since December, when he graced the front page in connection with unexpected street protests, which gathered tens of thousands in Moscow against him and his party, United Russia.
In 2007, Putin was announced Time Man of the Year, a title he shared with past Soviet leaders such as Josef Stalin and Mikhail Gorbachev.