Russia president, warships to Venezuela to counter US

[DogPoundPup]

Sun 23 Nov 2008, 18:35 GMT


By Frank Jack Daniel

CARACAS, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Warships, nuclear power, arms sales and perhaps cooperation on oil prices -- Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev is in Venezuela this week with an alarming sounding list to wave under Washington's nose.

The U.S. government dismisses the importance of Medvedev's visit on Wednesday to meet Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the deployment of several Russian warships for joint military exercises with Venezuelan forces in the Caribbean. It says Russia's weak navy is no threat and downplays its rivals' blooming friendship.

But OPEC-member Venezuela is Russia's first firm ally in the Americas since the Cold War and Moscow sees ties to Chavez as a way to answer U.S. influence close to its borders in the Caucasus.
http://africa.reuters.com/energyandoil/news/usnN23466456.html?rpc=401&

[melonkali]

1. Remember that Medvedev is a puppet of Putin --

Putin is an exceptionally brilliant man (one of his fields of expertise is global economics), old-KGB and a semi-Stalinist. It's going to take our brightest and best to deal with Russia in the coming years.