The three most powerful people on earth, according to Forbes, L-R, Putin, Merkel, Obama

Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken the top spot out of 73 on Forbes’seventh annual ranking of “The World’s Most Powerful People” for the third year in a row.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is ranked second, moving up  3 spots from last year, while President Barack Obama , who is ranked number 3 dropped 1 spot, making it the first year a sitting U.S. President has not made it into the top 2 spots.

Pope Francis retained his place this year as number four ahead of General Secretary, Communist Party of China’s Xi Jinping  who fell 2 spots to become number five.

Rounding out the Top 10 are Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Co-chair Bill Gates (No. 6), Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen (No. 7), U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron (No. 8), India Prime Minister Narendra Modi (No. 9) and Alphabet CEO Larry Page (No. 10).

Read more at Forbes:These heads of state, financiers, philanthropists and entrepreneurs truly run the world.

And here also an infographics by AFP: