Last Friday in Moscow, Russian president Dmitri Medvedev signed a formal agreement obliging his country to help Venezuela launch a nuclear energy program. Vladimir Putin first floated the idea of Russian-Venezuelan nuclear cooperation , following the Georgian war, and he signed a preliminary nuclear accord with Hugo Ch谩vez . On Friday, Medvedev and Ch谩vez finalized the deal.
聯I don聮t know who will shudder at this,聰 the Russian leader wryly, insisting that Moscow聮s motives in helping Ch谩vez go nuclear were 聯absolutely pure and open.聰 (Neither Medvedev nor Ch谩vez offered an exact timeline for the project.) His comments will do little to reassure the United States and its democratic partners in Latin America, who are well aware of Venezuela聮s history as a state sponsor of terrorism, a regional bully, and a close ally of the Iranian theocracy. (Indeed, according to , a 2009 Israeli foreign ministry report accused Venezuela of providing Tehran with uranium.)
The very same day that Medvedev and Ch谩vez signed their nuclear pact, Putin that Russia would be selling Caracas another 35 military tanks. Over the past several years, Moscow has been of Venezuela聮s arms buildup. 聯We are willing to supply tanks and, with respect to other types of weapons, we will do it broadly,聰 Putin said on Friday. 聯Russian companies have started to work according to their orders.聰
After his stop in Moscow, Ch谩vez headed west to neighboring Belarus and met with its dictator, Alexander Lukashenko. Ch谩vez outlandishly that the eastern European country 聯would feel no shortages of oil in the next 200 years,聰 thanks to Venezuela. The two governments 聯are building an alternative to imperialism,聰 Ch谩vez added.
These remarks may seem more comical than anything, but they should not be ignored. Venezuela has systemically embraced virtually every authoritarian regime and anti-American dictator on the planet. It is now playing the same role that Castro聮s Cuba did during the Cold War. As for the nuclear agreement, that should dispel any illusion that Ch谩vez has been in the U.S.-Venezuela relationship.