U.S. President Donald Trump has beaten Russian leader Vladimir Putin to became Russia’s most-talked about public figure.
According to data from media analytics company SCAN, Trump was mentioned 202,000 times in the Russian press in January 2017.
Putin was named the country’s second most discussed figure, losing his place at the top of the monthly table for the first time since 2011. His name was mentioned a mere 147,000 times.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama slid into third place with 61,155 mentions, while Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton only managed to cling to seventh place with 23,843 mentions.
Other top scorers included Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
SCAN compiled the data by analyzing more than 240,000 articles from Russia’s national and regional press, television and radio broadcasts, and online news sites each day in January.
Putin and Trump talked by telephone for the first time over the weekend, with both men pledging to restore better ties between Washington and Moscow.
The White House described the conversation as a “significant start to improving the relationship between the United States and Russia that is in need of repair.”
“Both President Trump and President Putin are hopeful that after today’s call, the two sides can move quickly to tackle terrorism and other important issues of mutual concern,” the White House said in a statement.
The Kremlin also expressed its delight with the conversation, telling Russians that Trump wished to “happiness and prosperity” for the Russian people.
