Chavez Praises Russia and Rifle
By Anna Smolchenko Staff Writer
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday praised Russia for resisting U.S. pressure to cancel its $1 billion arms deal with his country, and eulogized the Kalashnikov rifle during a meeting with its inventor on a trip to his hometown, Izhevsk.
During the visit, the second to an arms center on Chavez's three-day trip to Russia, he went out of his way to thumb his nose at the United States, which he called "an immoral and cynical empire."
Chavez is expected to sign a $1 billion defense deal for the purchase of Russian fighter jets and helicopters in Moscow on Thursday, when he is also due to meet with President Vladimir Putin.
Chavez's visit to Russia is part of a tour of several countries that are highly critical of the United States, including Belarus and Iran. Chavez has said the tour is aimed at winning support for Venezuela's bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
In Izhevsk, Chavez was treated to a tour of the city's armaments hot spots. He passed on a chance to test out the rifles at a firing range, but watched rifles being assembled at the IzhMash arms factory, where the sight of a young woman quickly assembling a Kalashnikov had him "going crazy."
"I would like to thank Russia, the producer of armaments, because Russia has helped to sever the blockade that was tied by the United States around Venezuela," Chavez said on his arrival at the Izhevsk airport Wednesday morning, Interfax reported.
Chavez then lashed out at the United States, which he accuses of having designs on Venezuela's oil reserves, the largest in South America.
"The United States is the most immoral and cynical empire, worse even than the Roman empire. ... If somebody is going to meddle with us we'll fight back, like you did in Stalingrad," he said in televised comments.
A spokesman for the U.S. State Department on Tuesday reiterated Washington's opposition to the arms deal.
"We certainly hope that the Russians will reconsider this sale, because we don't think it's in the best interest of Russia or Venezuela," Tom Casey said, according to a transcript of his comments on the State Department's web site.
But both Russia and Venezuela shrugged off criticism Wednesday, saying the nations would go ahead with the defense deal as planned.
Chavez met with Mikhail Kalashnikov, 85, the designer of the AK-47, at Izhevsk's museum dedicated to the rifle.
NTV television showed Kalashnikov and Chavez embracing each other.
"The Kalashnikov rifle is the banner of the Venezuelan armed forces," Interfax quoted Chavez as telling Kalashnikov.
"They met like good, old friends," said Alexander Batitsa, a spokesman for the IzhMash plant, where Kalashnikov is the chief designer.
Kalashnikov presented Chavez with a book in English, Interfax reported. Kalashnikov's new autobiography, "The Gun That Changed the World," comes out in paperback this November. Chavez said he didn't speak English, but added that he'd get to read the book anyway.
Chavez told Kalashnikov that during his recent visit to see Cuban President Fidel Castro, Castro had said he was very sorry that he had missed meeting Kalashnikov when the Russian designer visited Cuba. Wednesday's meeting was the second this month between Chavez and Kalashnikov, who visited Chavez in Venezuela for the country's Independence Day celebrations.
At the firing range, Chavez was shown a range of assault and sniper rifles and grenade launchers, among other weapons, Batitsa said. He was also shown the Tor-M1 and Osa air defense systems made by another Izhevsk defense plant, Kupol.
Batitsa said Chavez was asked if he wanted to test the weapons but declined, citing a packed schedule. Chavez, a former paratrooper, was shown on NTV television talking to an officer in fatigues. According to NTV, Chavez asked the officer about his rank and told him, "I was never promoted to a [full] colonel. I behaved badly -- I was a revolutionary."
At the IzhMazh plant, Chavez was shown how Kalashnikov rifles were assembled. He stopped next to a young woman assembling a rifle and said, "I am just going crazy about how she's doing it so quickly."
Chavez "was delighted to see such a powerful production facility," Batitsa said. Batitsa said IzhMash had already delivered more than 30,000 AK-103 automatic rifles in June, part of a contract for 100,000 automatic rifles.
In Volgograd on Tuesday, Chavez visited the Volgograd Tractor Factory, which makes tanks and other armaments, and laid a wreath at the city's monument to the battle of Stalingrad.
Chavez said Wednesday that he had struck an oil deal during a meeting with LUKoil president Vagit Alekperov in Volgograd, and that the Russian firm would start exploration in two areas, one boasting "huge oil reserves" on the banks of the Orinoco River.
On the eve of Chavez's visit to Izhevsk, Humberto Prieto, the mayor of the Venezuelan city of Maracay, signed a twin cities agreement with his Izhevsk counterpart, Viktor Balakin. Maracay is the site of a factory that will assemble Kalashnikovs, Interfax reported.
The Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that the arms deal contradicted neither international nor Russian law. "We're talking about the relations of two sovereign states that are constructing them on a market basis and with an eye to the competitiveness of this or that commodity," spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in comments posted on the ministry's web site.
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov also weighed in Wednesday. "The revision of the contract is absolutely out of the question. This absolutely cannot happen," Ivanov said on a visit to Ryazan, Interfax reported. "Twenty-four planes are not excessive to defend territory as expansive as that of Venezuela."
Ivan Safranchuk, head of the Moscow office of the Center for Defense Information, a Washington-based think tank, said Russia was not risking much by raising the ire of the United States.
"Russia can feel confident here," Safranchuk said. "It has a standard set of counterarguments."
One of them, he said, was the recent U.S. sale of 48 F-16 fighters to Poland.
"Russian can always ask, 'Why does Poland need those planes? To defend itself from Russia?" Safranchuk said.
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2006/07/27/001.html
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