Vladimir Putin, like Xi Jinping, would be around far longer their counterparts in other democratic powers. Hence, Russia can never be ignored as a major power despite a weak economy, says Sir Martin Sorrell.

Sir Martin Sorrell is Founder and Executive Chairman of S4 Capital plc, the tech led, new age / new era digital advertising and marketing services company. Sir Martin was Founder and CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it from a £1 million ‘shell’ company in 1985 into the world’s largest advertising and marketing services company. Prior to that, Sir Martin was Group Financial Director of Saatchi & Saatchi plc for nine years and worked for James Gulliver, Mark McCormack and Glendinning Associates before that. S4Capital is listed on the London Stock Exchange under SFOR.L. Sir Martin supports a number of leading business schools and universities, including his alma maters, Harvard Business School and Cambridge University, and a number of charities. He was ranked the second best-performing CEO in the World by the Harvard Business Review in 2016 and 2017, and received the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award. He has also been nominated as one of the TIME 100: The Most Influential People.

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On Russia & Putin