World | Vladimir Putin Bye, Bye, Petro-Czars The power of petro-czars has slumped as oil prices have fallen By Wesley Oliver Posted Feb 15, 2009 6:02 PM CST Copied Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, right, and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, left, are seen during their meeting in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev) There is one silver lining to the global recession: The economic and political fortunes of America’s oil-rich antagonists have been tarnished, Rana Foroohar writes in Newsweek. Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez have all been humbled by the falling price of oil, which has plummeted to $37 a barrel from from $147 last summer. “High oil prices and oil wealth reshaped geopolitics,” said one expert. “Now we’re seeing the reversal of all that,” including diplomatic openness to “imperial” America and the possible sacking of Ahmadinejad and Chávez. Concludes Foroohar: Recession presents “the opportunity to exploit the even more glaring weaknesses of one’s rivals, to talk to enemies whose problems at home open them to compromise.” Read These Next 11 people hurt in a "brutal act of violence" in Michigan. We knew Letterman would pipe up about Colbert eventually. A parent's nightmare, in a white cardboard box. Now we know why Ghislaine Maxwell may have opened up to the DOJ. Report an error