Time magazine has named Russian President Vladimir Putin its Person of the Year for 2007.

Good choice, indeed.

Like Professor Samuel Huntington, we believe without order there can be no civil society.

After the chaos of the Gorbachev and Yeltsin eras, Putin has ushered in order, stability and prosperity (helped by high oil prices) for his people.

Explaining their decision, Time’s editors said:

At significant cost to the principles and ideas that free nations prize, he [Putin] has performed an extraordinary feat of leadership in imposing stability on a nation that has rarely known it and brought Russia back to the table of world power.

Other contenders for the Time Person of the Year included former U.S. VP and recent Nobel winner Al Gore, author J.K.Rowling and China’s strongman Hu Jintao.