Putin see $5B in Arms for Chavez

I hope the U.S. is keeping an eye on Columbia. This can't be good.

Venezuela may spend more than $5 billion to buy Russian weapons, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Monday, signaling that the country is a larger market than Russia had expected.

Putin, who met Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday, did not say what time span the potential contracts would cover, but he implied that they were almost a done deal.

“Sources for funding have been generally determined and agreed with our partners,” he told a government meeting on the defense industry.

Venezuela’s spending on Russian weapons would include the $2.2 billion seven-year loan that Moscow promised to extend to Caracas in September, Putin said. Venezuela has not drawn from the credit line yet.

In asking for the loan, Caracas said it intended to buy several S-300 air defense systems and 92 T-72 tanks.

Putin’s announcement Monday indicated that the trade might go well beyond those previous plans, however. He did not disclose what additional supplies Venezuela was considering, although he did say the contracts would go to 13 companies, including the Izhmash plant, which is the maker of Kalashnikov assault rifles, and “one of the plants in Tula.”

Read more here: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/putin-sees-5bln-in-arms-for-chavez/403337.html