Medvedev called Venezuela's military caudillo to wish him well and to announce Sergey Lavrov, Russia's minister for Foreign Affairs, would be visiting the Land of Grace in late August.
What is at stake? As I have mentioned earlier, the Russian Federation has earned more than 7 billion dollars since 2004 by selling weapons to my underdeveloped nation. Let's be clear: Venezuela is a poor nation, even if it has a lot of oil. Education levels are dismal, infrastructure is crumbling down and productivity is as low as it can get. Still, it buys weapons that have no real chance against any hypothetical foreign invasion and could only be use for 1) attacking Venezuelans and 2) creating the opportunities for some people to get nice commissions.
I predict more support from the Russian government for Venezuelan security services, more loans for Chávez to try to win the elections in 2012 and more debts for Venezuela. Lavrov will discuss, as the Russians are saying, things like the Venezuelan-Russian bank and the transactions in ruble instead of dollars. The main purpose of that bank is going to be to facilitate the payment of weapons deals and such "priorities" for the Venezuelan military caste. Отлично - for the Russians.
 |
| Lavrov taking care of the Bolivarian chicken of the golden eggs |