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Chavez visits Russia for arms talks on anti-US tour
By Sebastian Smith
AFP
MOSCOW
Petroleumworld.com 06 27 07Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez takes his anti-US crusade on tour Wednesday with a visit to Russia, followed by stops in Belarus and Iran, all countries at loggerheads with Washington.
Weapons purchases, possibly including submarines in Russia and an air-defence system in Belarus, were expected to top the agenda for the charismatic Venezuelan leader.
The trip to Russia, where Chavez will meet President Vladimir Putin, is likely to irk the United States, coming on the eve of crucial talks this weekend between Putin and US President George W. Bush.
Washington has expressed alarm at what it sees as an increasingly undemocratic and belligerent Venezuela, which is riding high on a tide of petrodollars.Chavez showed no sign of playing down the rhetoric, saying ahead of his trip: "The war of resistance is the weapon with which we are defeating and will defeat the threat of imperial war."
Chavez is due to arrive in Russia on Wednesday and is scheduled to have dinner with Putin in the Kremlin on Thursday, the Russian foreign ministry told AFP.
On Friday, Chavez is due to meet the speaker of parliament, Boris Gryzlov, before leaving for the southern city of Rostov-on-Don to visit a helicopter factory Saturday and attend a horse race with Putin.
After Russia, Chavez is expected to go on to Belarus and Iran, countries whose governments are considered virtually outlaw regimes by the United States.
Relations between Washington and Moscow are also at their most tense for years over a dispute about US plans to deploy an anti-missile system in central Europe.
Chavez's Russia visit, ending barely a day before Putin is received at the Bush family home in Kennebunkport in the US state of Maine on Sunday and Monday is unlikely to help.
Chavez said last week he might purchase Russian submarines. Media reports in Moscow said as many as nine might be on the flamboyant president's shopping list, although there has been no confirmation.
Last year Venezuela signed three billion dollars worth in contracts for more than 53 Mi-24 helicopter gunships, 24 Sukhoi-30 fighter planes, and 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles.Chavez has also said he hopes to put the "finishing touches" on an agreement to purchase from Belarus an integrated air defense system with a 200-300-kilometer range (125-200 miles).
Little is known about Chavez's plans in Iran, which Bush once described as part of an "axis of evil" and is now locked in an international dispute over its nuclear ambitions.
AFP 26 1126 GMT 06 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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