July 27, 2006
Chávez congratulates Russia for defying the US on issues of arms sale

(El Nacional) - "President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, congratulated Russia for defying the US's arms selling blockage and for agreeing to sell weapons to his country. Chávez will sign an agreement for 1 billion dollars to buy Russian aircrafts Sukhoi 30 (...)

During his visit to Izhevsk, President Chávez said 'I would like to thank Russia, the arms producer, because it has helped break the blockage imposed on Venezuela by the US'.

Chávez said he is purchasing military equipment to modernise the Venezuelan Armed Forces (...)

'The United States does not have morals to criticize anything. Russia's arms' selling to Venezuela is a mechanism incorporated in the frame of international rights'. (...)

High officials from the Kremlin said they do not see any reason to take the White House's advise.

The Russian Minister of Defence, Serguei Ivanov, declared that his country will comply with the contracts on delivery times for caza airplanes and helicopters to Venezuela, with which he officially rejected the calls from Washington. 'A contract revision has been completely discarded', said Ivanov (...)

'Venezuela is not subject to any sanctions and there is no restriction to sign this agreement', Ivanov insisted.

'24 caza airplanes is not an excessive amount for the national defence of a country the size of Venezuela'.

The Russian Chancellery said military cooperation between Russia and Venezuela strictly complies with international norms (...)".