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| Caribbean-Latin America | |
| Hugo's purchase of Russian arms to exceed $9.4 billion | |
| 2010-04-07 | |
| During his visit to Venezuela last week, Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin did not mention Venezuela's interest in purchasing weapons, but as soon as he arrived in Moscow, the top Russian official said that Hugo Chavez's government intends to buy military hardware worth USD 5 billion. "A Russian delegation has just returned from Venezuela, a country that intends to buy Russian arms worth more than USD 5 billion," Putin said at a meeting devoted to the development of the military-industrial sector, reported Russian news agency Ria Novosti. With the amount disclosed by Prime Minister Putin, Venezuela will have spent about USD 9.4 billion in Russian military equipment. Purchases include 24 Sukhoi jet fighters, 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 53 multi-functional and combat helicopters and portable rocket launchers. According to Russian military sources consulted by Interfax news agency, the Venezuelan government has also plans to buy three diesel-electric Varshavianka-class submarines, 92 T-72 tanks, several dozens of BMP-3 armored vehicles, 10 Mi-28N combat helicopters, an undisclosed number of Il-114 patrol airplanes, an unspecified number of Smerch multiple rocket launchers, and S-300PMU-2 Favorit, Antey-2500 and Tor-M2E air defense systems. All of this stuff was considered current a while back. In some cases, a long while back. Hugo knows that even if his military knew how to use all of this equipment to their best advantage, it wouldn't matter in a fight against the U.S. So either the weapons are to be used against his neighbors, or against his own people.
Among other deals, Moscow is negotiating with Caracas the sale of several dozens of An-148 cargo/passenger and cargo transportation airplanes. Chavez has already announced the purchase of at least one Be-200 amphibious aircraft to fight forest fires. Putin confirmed that Moscow granted Caracas a USD 2.2 billion loan to purchase arms, out of the USD 5 billion the government of President Hugo Chavez is willing to expend to buy Russian arms. "The weapons contracts will be placed with leading Russian defense-industry enterprises, including IzhMash," said on Monday the Russian head of government. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #11 Putin will have to send Vinnie and some of the boys around to give him a little 'reminder'. Not necessarily. Remember Saddam's Oil-for-Fraud payoff of (per his accountant's ledger) "$91 million to the Office of the Russian President"? Occam would bet that a goodly % of the funds will be wired to certain numbered accounts in the Caribbean (for Oogo) and Switzerland (for Volodya). 10% in toto wouldn't be farfetched. Citibank's private banking group will be happy. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-04-07 15:47 |
| #10 Another vote for against his own people. The joker wasn't buying subs and missiles capable of striking Miami. The absurdly large AK-47 buy gives the game away. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-04-07 15:44 |
| #9 I don't think i would write a check for the S-300 just yet. Seems Iran has been trying too get theirs delivered fo about 5 years now |
| Posted by: chris 2010-04-07 11:20 |
| #8 Oooooh, old Russkie diesel-electric boats! Can you say "target practice"? |
| Posted by: mojo 2010-04-07 11:19 |
| #7 I like happy endings John F. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-04-07 08:41 |
| #6 Here is my prediction: Hugo will make a downpayment (two billion or so) but will run out of money. The Russians will escalate the price and then default on delivery. Hugo's successor and Putin's successor will be arguing about a refund for the next twenty years |
| Posted by: john frum 2010-04-07 08:37 |
| #5 I wonder if any of these weapons find their way to the drug cartels along the Mexican-U.S. border? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-04-07 08:29 |
| #4 Netherlands Antilles. |
| Posted by: Pstanley 2010-04-07 02:22 |
| #3 Does he HAVE 9.4 Billion? Putin will have to send Vinnie and some of the boys around to give him a little 'reminder'. |
| Posted by: Cheresh Black7582 2010-04-07 01:43 |
| #2 If we'd stop poking ourselves in the eyes like the Three Stooges we might figure out that drilling could help with this problem. |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-04-07 01:12 |
| #1 So either the weapons are to be used against his neighbors, or against his own people. Five billion is a lot of jack for a country that can't keep the lights on reliably. Submarines, air defense and MLRS says he is thinking about his neighbors. The rest of his shopping list is useful in either scenario. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2010-04-07 00:42 |