Venezuela's very own anti-US dictator is hangin' out with Putin and the Russians today and buying war toys.
That's right. Hugo Chavez is in Russia to complete major arms deals.
Chavez hit Moscow after meeting with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, another anti-US dictator.
Apparently, this is part of a world tour for Chavez that includes face time with friendly governments like Qatar and Iran.
Flush with petrodollars, Chavez plans to spend about $1 billion on Russian arms - which Putin is happy to sell him, in spite of US requests not to. That will likely cover 30 Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets and 30 helicopters. Chavez also wants to buy 100,000 Russian-made AK-103 assault rifles and make a deal with the Russians to set up factories in Venezuela to produce Kalashnikovs under licence.
Since Venezuela has no particularly threatening neighbors, what Chavez is planning on doing with all this military hardware is open to question...but I think I know the answer.
3 comments:
MR. FF,
Hugo Chavez announced plans to buy up to 900,000 more assault rifles to arm his military, this with the addition of the 100,000 he just bought will give the Venezuelan army over 1.1 million assault rifles.......more than ample amount to destabilize other countries in the region.
Last year Mini-Fidel signed agreements with Tehran totaling $8 Billion to help each other to develop and support nuclear weapons capability and they have geologists prospecting the lands in Bolivia for uranium deposits.
The guys is nuts.
What are his (uhm Venezuela's)chances on being added to the U.N. Scurity Council?
There are few, if any, blogs that provide more insight and clear, concise info than yours, keep it up!
PS- Thanks for responding to my request on/around July 12, I went on vacation shortly after I posted.
oh come now joe g.
don't be so harsh on the prince of caracass.
after all, you know who's paying for those rifles?
whaddup.
when you get up tomorrow morning, and look in the mirror, get mad at that guy.
the USA imports a third of its' crude oil supplies from the prince. of course it's a have-to situation sort of, due to the fact that all of the princes' crude HAS to be refined by US oil companies. you see venezuela's crude is a heavy sour mix that not just anyone can handle/refine. but the good ol' USA sure can eat it up like no bodys business. he could send it to europe......and cut his capacity to 1/10th of current levels. HAH!!
and that's not the half of it.
the prince has announced that he is closing the citgo line of service stations in texas and oklahoma.
why?
due to the fact that the prince is having to buy 130,000 bbl/day in order to make contract obligations. now i hope you got your cynic's hat on, cause i do.
if you had a product that could only be handled by someone you hate and someone you like has the same thing and he'll even sell it to you on the QT........
i can just hear puken and the prince making the oil-for-guns deal like it is/was in my own backyard.
and because these are such open societies and the accounting is so transparent, you just know that the crude, russian crude is light sweet which can be refined anywhere, is being paid for at full market value.
no?
130,000 bbls is not much in the grand scheme of things.
but it will pay for rifles.
it will stick it to the man.
in a south american sort of way.
off topic comment:
what will history say about a country that so enabled its' enemies in the name of economics?
nazar,
They are a people with high levels of intelligence
then why do they select the nanny state?
why do they put up with leadership that imo does not challenge them to make a better society?
did they not have a chance to make a clean break?
the reason i ask my questions is because of a comment i heard, maybe propaganda, about russian society.
the russians can build a submarine that can dive farther and faster than anything america can build. they just haven't got the washing machine down yet.
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