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Hugo Chavez in Moscow to Buy Arms

Venezuela?s president Hugo Chavez is known for his antagonism toward the United States, and his cozying up to figures such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Fidel Castro of Cuba is well known. Also well known is the desire of President Chavez to develop close defense ties with Vladimir Putin?s Russia. Like Putin, Chavez has been accused by Washington of backtracking from democratic development, though despite Putin?s past as a KGB operative, Russia?s backslide toward full-fledged authoritarianism has nothing to do, really, with communism or leftist tendencies ? despite Hugo Chavez?s professed hard-left identity.

And so it should come as no surprise to anyone when Hugo Chavez showed up in Moscow this week to seal the deal for an arms purchase which is sure to make the United States even more wary of Mr. Chavez than Washington already is. There are reports that the arms deal will be worth an estimated $1 billion , for 30 Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets and 30 helicopters. Chavez also reportedly wants to buy 100,000 Russian-made AK-103 assault rifles.

While traveling the world denouncing America, Chavez is always quick to claim that the U.S. aim is to attack Venezuela, though Washington vehemently denies this. The United States have been pressuring Moscow not to make the sale to Chavez, citing his buddy-buddy status with Evo Morales of Boliva and Mr. Castro of Cuba, a decades-old foe of Washington.