Chávez in Russia Discuss Closer Ties forge ties and poke a finger in US eyes

[seemslikeadream]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL2210042820080722

By Oleg Shchedrov and Chris Baldwin

MOSCOW, July 22 (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday hailed closer ties with Venezuelan socialist leader Hugo Chavez, overseeing energy deals bringing the two key oil producers and rivals of the United States closer together.

Upbeat after the cordial reception, Chavez declared, albeit hypothetically, that Russia would be welcome to deploy a military base in his country, if it asked for such.

"If Russia's armed forces want to be present in Venezuela, they will be given a warm welcome," Chavez told a news conference in response to a question. The idea did not, however, seem to have been on his Moscow agenda.

Chavez, who met Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, said he had felt "strong human warmth" while meeting Medvedev and "personal chemistry immediately appeared between us".

"We are already big and good friends," he said.

"We are considering issues linked to our strategic partnership, be it in the energy sector, industry, finance, science and technology, or military issues," Chavez said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Medvedev and Chavez oversaw four deals between Russian oil companies and Venezuela's state energy firm PDVSA. These allow the Russians to develop new deposits in the South American country and pave the way for big infrastructure and engineering projects. Values were not disclosed

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more


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/eb32ff66-584e-11dd-b02f-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
Russia and Venezuela forge ties and poke a finger in US eye
By Benedict Mander in Caracas

Published: July 23 2008 03:00 | Last updated: July 23 2008 03:00

Russia and Venezuela reinforced their relationship yesterday as Hugo Chávez, the president, arrived in Moscow to sign arms and energy deals and establish a binational bank.

"I have great hopes we will be able to continue building our strategic alliance," Mr Chávez said after landing in Moscow, emphasising co-operation on oil and gas and military technology. "The deals will guarantee the sovereignty of Venezuela, which is being threatened by the United States."

Deals were signed allowing three large Russian energy companies to work in Venezuela's oil-rich Orinoco Belt. Lukoil and TNK-BP will be allowed to explore for oil, while a subsidiary of Gazprom is to assess gas reserves.

Venezuela is also interested in setting up a joint bank to facilitate bilateral trade, which exceeded $1bn (£500m) in 2007, more than double the 2006 total



Russia signed a deal with Iran last Sunday also

[seemslikeadream]

1. Putin: Russia seeks closer military cooperation with Venezuela

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/23/content_8750858.htm

MOSCOW, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday expressed his hope for closer military cooperation with Venezuela during his talks with visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at his residence near Moscow.

"We have recently been strengthening the legal base for our cooperation, searching for ways to diversify our relations through new cooperation areas, namely transport, space, high-tech production, and of course military and technical cooperation," Putin was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying.

Chavez, for his part, thanked Putin for his support to Venezuela. "I want to thank you for the actions and decisions you have firmly taken and made in our support," he said.

Putin accepted the president's invitation to visit Venezuela, saying the visit time would be convenient for both countries.





http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/2446112/Russia-and-Venezuela-in-deal-to-counter-US-aggression.html

Russia and Venezuela in deal to counter 'US aggression'
Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, has called for a strategic relationship with Russia to counter aggression from the United States.

By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
Last Updated: 11:33PM BST 22 Jul 2008

Previous1 of 2 ImagesNext During Mr Putin's last term, Russia sold Hugo Chavez's Venezuela over £2 billion in arms, from combat helicopters and Sukhoi fighter jets to Kalashnikov rifles Photo: EPA
Mr Medvedev , pictured here with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez , was particularly effusive, describing Venezuela as Russia's 'most important partner' Photo: EPA
With a long shopping list for state-of-the-art defence equipment under his arm, Mr Chavez did his best to ingratiate himself with his hosts.

He first signed off on a deal giving Russia's state-owned energy companies – often accused of doubling as private piggy banks for powerful Kremlin forces – exclusive rights to develop new deposits Venezuela's Orinoco Oil Belt.

Then he switched smoothly to flattery, with a call for the Russian rouble to replace the US dollar as the world's global currency.

"We in OPEC have proposed to put an end to the dollar," Mr Chavez said, speaking in his role as self-appointed spokesman for the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Mr Chavez was given correspondingly warm welcome as he met with one old friend, prime minister Vladimir Putin, and one new one in the form of president Dmitry Medvedev.

Mr Medvedev was particularly effusive, describing Venezuela as Russia's "most important partner".

[curious one]

2. I was reading and thinking this would not have happened 8-10 years ago.

We have fallen deep and hard to have Russians in our backyard.

[stillcool]

3. Bush is the great uniter..

I wonder how that chessboard is looking these days.

[seemslikeadream]

4. military cooperation agreement

[Danger Mouse]

5. I don't trust Putin any more than I trust Bush.

[mmonk]

6. We're too tied up in our quest to conquer central asia

and the Persian Gulf to do much.

[seemslikeadream]

7. That's true

[seemslikeadream]

8. Medvedev’s Bold Proposals

http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/Geopolitics___Eurasia/Medvedev/medvedev.html

By F. William Engdahl, 22 July 2008



Perhaps the most unsettling aspect of the current US Presidential campaign, aside from the studied avoidance of any serious proposals to address the worst economic depression since the 1930’s, is the fact that both major party candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, have to date been stone silent on the most pressing issue of future war or peace, namely the steps taken by the Bush-Cheney Administration to encircle Russia with a new Iron Curtain of NATO member states, including strenuous efforts to push Ukraine and Georgia into NATO, and to establish an advanced nuclear missile defense system which, from a standpoint of military strategy, far from defense, puts the world on a hair-trigger to nuclear holocaust in the few years ahead.

In this context, it is equally disturbing how the Western major media and the Washington Administration have chosen to ignore what might be a last glimmer of hope for diplomatic resolution of a looming nuclear war by miscalculation. The present policy of the Bush Administration genuinely can be called Mutual Assured Destruction, MAD, as in the brilliant Kubrick film, Dr. Strangelove.

Medvedev’s proposals

In this context there are proposals being offered by Russia’s new President, Dmitry Medvedev, however tentative, which bear closer scrutiny than the West has yet given. Since becoming President, he has begun in speech after speech to speak of a proposed “new order” of security relations incorporating the United States, Russia and the European Union. At the very least it offers a starting point for entering new dialogue rather than escalate the current NATO provocation course that the Bush Administration has followed since 2001 against Moscow. The details are worth noting, even if still preliminary.

The first outlines of Medvedev’s concept for cooperation not confrontation between East and West came in Berlin in June during his talks with German Chancellor Merkel. There he proposed an all-European security pact with Russia’s participation, inherently in opposition to NATO.

The West faced an entirely new possibility in 1989 as Mikhail Gorbachev allowed the Berlin Wall to collapse and soon after Russia dissolved the military Warsaw Pact alliance against NATO. At the time there was great expectation within many European capitals that a new era of peaceful cooperation would slowly evolve as mutual trust could be established between the two major Cold War foes―the United States and Russia. It was also clear to many that the need for NATO would also vanish.

The failed opportunity

There was serious debate at that time whether in fact NATO was at all necessary in a world where Moscow had agreed to systematically dismantle its nuclear arsenal and open its economy up to the West, even including allowing the International Monetary Fund to dictate economic policy. While Moscow engaged in reducing its military forces and its nuclear stockpiles, the United States chose to maintain and even expand NATO, now to the very former satellite nations of the Warsaw Pact.