Thursday, September 25, 2008

Chavez heads for Russia seeking political, economic deals

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will arrive in Russia later on Thursday to meet with his Russian counterpart and sign new political and financial agreements.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Chavez would be in the country for two days. Before leaving Beijing, where he had been on a three-day visit, Chavez said: "During my upcoming visit to Russia we will launch a number of new political and financial projects."

He said he planned to discuss with President Dmitry Medvedev, among other things, the possibility of creating a joint Russian-Venezuelan bank.

Chavez said his second meeting with Medvedev so far this year would take place in southern Russia, near the border with Azerbaijan, where they would both observe a military exercise. He spoke in glowing terms about the upcoming joint Russian-Venezuelan naval exercise in the Caribbean. "The Russian fleet has already left Severomorsk and is on its way to the Venezuelan coast, where a joint exercise will take place in November. It must not be regarded as a declaration of war - it is a declaration of peace," he said.

A naval task force from the Northern Fleet, comprised of the nuclear-powered missile cruiser Pyotr Velikiy, the large ASW ship Admiral Chabanenko, and support ships, left the Severomorsk base on Monday to conduct training exercises in the Atlantic. He added that the Russian naval presence in the Venezuelan waters served the cause of peace, as had the recent flights along the South American coast from a Venezuelan airbase by Russian strategic bombers

The controversial flights, close to U.S. borders, have been criticized by the Bush administration, with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accusing Russia of playing a "dangerous game."

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