LatinNews Daily - 26 September 2008

Significant: Coming on the heels of Chávez 's three-day state visit to China, where he signed important new accords on energy cooperation with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, the meeting with Putin had a geopolitical edge. Unlike the Chinese, Putin has expressed support for Chávez 's anti-US “multipolar" word vision and the Russians have used their growing relations with Venezuela (and Cuba) to tease the US.

The two signed new deals for the purchase of new military defence equipment and announced new oil - and nuclear - energy cooperation deals.

“Amigo Vladimir" agreed to offer Chávez US$1bn in credit to finance Venezuela's purchase of new military equipment, including air defence systems, armoured personnel carriers and more Su-35 fighter jets. Chávez has been an important customer for the Russian defence industry: by some estimates he spent US$4.4bn on Russian military purchases in the period 2005-2007 alone.

As with his trip to China however, the more interesting accords are the energy deals. Chávez said that the two had agreed to set up a new energy consortium between Venezuela's state oil firm Pdvsa and Russia's powerful Gazprom, Lukoil and TNK-BP to work on energy projects, not only in Venezuela and Russia, but also internationally.

More worringly for the US, Putin suggested he would be willing to cooperate on “pacific atomic energy programmes" in Venezuela.

Venezuela, despite boasting of the second highest oil reserves in the western hemisphere, is seeking to diversify its sources of energy and, like Brazil, has expressed an interest in nuclear power.

The prospect of Russian nuclear technology being made available to Venezuela, however, will unsettle the US state department. (Controversially, Russia already provides such technology to Iran.)

And all of this is ahead of joint Venezuelan-Russian military manoeuvres in the Caribbean in November. While the US has sought to downplay the ratcheting up of Russia-Venezuela relations and Russia's efforts to gain a strategic foothold in the region as mere posturing, it will undoubtedly make the next US president pay better attention to the “backyard".

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