US business magazine Forbes named Russian President Vladimir Putin as the world’s most powerful man for a fourth time in a row on December 15, pushing US president-elect Donald Trump into second place. 

Putin has pushed the US president into second place each year for the last four years in the magazine’s ranking.

“Russia's president has exerted his country’s influence in nearly every corner of the globe,” the magazine wrote. “From the motherland to Syria to the US presidential elections, Putin continues to get what he wants.”

Despite an ongoing deep economic recession and a military a fraction the size of the Nato’s forces, Putin has successfully faced down Russia’s long time rival in theatres across the world from Donbas to Aleppo.

At the same time, Russia has been able to rally the other leading emerging markets to its standard, foremost the BRIC countries, allowing Putin to defy sanctions imposed on Russia following the 2014 annexation of the Crimea peninsular.

That doesn't mean Russia has not suffered, but Putin has also managed to rally the Russian population by playing the nationalist card, even as much of the prosperity he oversaw since taking office in 2000 has been undone.

The 64-year-old Russian leader is “unconstrained by conventional global norms (and) his reach has magnified in recent years”, Forbes said.

Third place this year went to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been at the helm of Europe’s economic powerhouse for 11 years and announced plans to run for reelection next year.

US President Barack Obama, who placed second in 2015, plummeted to 48th place this year as he waits out the final weeks of his tenure, with his Democratic Party ousted from the White House after Trump’s shock election win last month and out of power in Congress.