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Russian arm sales to Venezuela may top 5 bln dlrs: Putin

Putin was received with military honours on his trip to Caracas last week by President Hugo Chavez.
by Staff Writers
Moscow (AFP) April 5, 2010
Russian arms sales to Venezuela may top five billion dollars (3.7 billion euros), Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Monday, following his visit to Caracas last week.

"Our delegation just returned from Venezuela. I want to inform you that the total volume of orders could exceed five billion dollars," Putin said at a televised government meeting on the country's defence industry.

The new deals with Venezuela include a 2.2 billion-dollar (1.6 billion-euro) credit Moscow extended Caracas in September for new arms purchases, Putin said.

He added that the contracts would go to 13 different arms manufacturers, without specifying a timeline for completion.

Putin was received with military honours on his trip to Caracas last week by President Hugo Chavez -- a leftist firebrand who has signed a dozen military agreements with Moscow since 2005 worth some 4.4 billion dollars.

The growing military cooperation between Russia and Venezuela -- including joint navy exercises with Russian warships in the Caribbean in 2008 -- has raised worries in the United States that Moscow is encroaching on its traditional zone of influence.

Russian arms exports -- the world's second largest after the United States -- reached a total of 7.4 billion dollars in 2009 despite the financial crisis, according to official figures.

Russia's top arms exporter meanwhile boasted an order book amounting to 34 billion dollars last year.

Moscow's traditional arms clients have included India, China, Algeria and Malaysia.

earlier related report
US warns Venezuela on weapon proliferation
Washington (AFP) April 5, 2010 - The United States on Monday questioned Venezuela's need to buy billions of dollars in weapons from Russia and voiced concern that the arms may wind up elsewhere in Latin America.

Leftist firebrand President Hugo Chavez last week inked new deals with Russia's visiting Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who said later that the total military sales by Venezuela may top five billion dollars.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said that while the two countries had the right to pursue relations, "We're hard-pressed to see what legitimate defense needs Venezuela has for the equipment."

"We can probably think of better things that could be invested on behalf of the Venezuelan people," he said.

"But our primary concern is that if Venezuela's going to increase its military hardware, we certainly don't want to see this hardware migrate into other parts of the hemisphere," he said.

"We would simply remind Venezuela that it, through a number of accords, has a responsibility for transparency in its acquisitions," he said.

The State Department has accused Chavez of assisting guerrillas in rival neighbor Colombia with drug trafficking.

A Spanish judge has recently alleged that Venezuela helped support plans by Colombia's FARC rebels and the Basque separatist group ETA to kill Colombian politicians in Spain, including President Alvaro Uribe.

The United States last year also questioned Chavez's pursuit of cooperation with Russia on space, noting that Venezuala faced major electricity shortages despite being a major oil producer.



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