Moscow, November 23 (Interfax) - The Russian defeat in the World Cup 2010 qualifying match intensified media attention to coach Guus Hiddink and added him to the list of the top five foreigners most frequently mentioned in last week's news.
Hiddink ranked fourth, with 557 media references on Nov. 16-22, according to the Interfax SCAN news analysis system.
Media reports speculating Hiddink’s possible withdrawal from the position of the Russian national team coach grew in number. The Guardian said he might accept the Chelsea technical directorship. Hiddink told the newspaper Sovetsky Sport that he would make a decision very soon, probably in December or January.
Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko scored 1,421 media references, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko – 1,337, U.S. President Barack Obama – 1,012, and Ukrainian Party of Regions leader Victor Yanukovych – 388.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin topped the Russian list with 3,648 and 2,675 references correspondingly.
Other members of the Russian top five were State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov 634), Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko (460), Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov (416), murdered cleric Daniil Sysoyev from the Moscow Apostle Thomas Church in Moscow (384), Central Bank First Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev 375), Central Bank head Sergei Ignatyev 374), Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov 346), and Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin 273).
The rating depends on the number of references to a particular person in documents received by SCAN from 1,500 national and regional publications, news agencies, specialized and industry publications, television, radio and the Internet.
SCAN (www.scan.interfax.ru) is a product of the Interfax International Information Group, which provides current information and access to electronic media archives and offer a unique system to monitor text and analysis.
SCAN receives over 16,000 documents daily. There are almost 21 million documents in SCAN.
