Person of the Year 2007

His final year as Russia's President has been his most successful yet. At home, he secured his political future. Abroad, he expanded his outsize—if not always benign—influence on global affairs

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Eduardo Arias

Scott Dalton / New York Times / Redux
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Is the little guy powerless in the global economy? Ask this discount-shopping Panamanian who bothered to read his toothpaste label. Among the ingredients, where it should have said "glyercine," Arias spotted the chemical name for antifreeze. Within days he lit the fuse on a scandal of tainted Chinese exports. He might have worked faster if he could afford a car.

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