For Putin, little but a lobster dinner

[lovuian]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/IG07Ag01.html

During his visit to Moscow last week, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez revealed that when he and Cuban leader Fidel Castro last met in Havana, they had drunk a toast to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his famous speech at the Munich security conference in February that attacked Washington for imposing its will on the world community.

"The empire must understand that it cannot dominate the world," Chavez said. But Moscow wouldn't take the bait. It kept the



Chavez visit low key. Kremlin spokesmen insisted the visit was about economic cooperation, not politics - not quite incorrect as Moscow is hoping to do brisk business in weaponry worth billions of dollars and to gain entry into Venezuela's oil sector in a big way.

The Kremlin's real priority, though, was to avoid irritating Washington on the eve of Putin's "lobster summit" with President George W Bush in Maine on July 1-2, which was to commence within 48 hours of Chavez's departure from Moscow for Tehran
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n essence, the US made a concession to Russia. The new legal framework would enable Russia to import spent nuclear fuel that originally came from the US and to reprocess it on a commercial basis. (Unlike the US, Russian law allows reprocessing work to be undertaken on Russian soil.) Taiwan and South Korea are potential clients.

According to the US special envoy for nuclear non-proliferation, Robert Joseph, there is huge scope for business in reprocessing spent fuel of US origin, since nuclear energy is expanding "not just in countries like India and China but a wide range potentially of other countries".
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All I can say is Bush is breathing down the neck of Putin and Putin is ignoring him