IIPM: Kremlin steps up political ties in Latin America

Chavez and Medvedev met on board a Russian warship harboured in a Venezuelan dock ahead of combined military drills. Medvedev said Russia is stepping up its political ties in Latin America and said Moscow must insistently seek out to shore up its financial position in the region. "One must admit, to put it simply, we have never had a serious presence here –

these have been just episodes," he told reporters in Cuba, referring to Latin America. "We visited states that no Russian leader, and no Soviet leader, ever visited. This means one thing: that attention simply was not paid to these countries," he said.

"This is evidently a thrust to swell Russia's sway on the world stage," Andrew Neff, an analyst with IHS Global Insight, told TSI. “Even though Russia was pursuing energy collaboration with Venezuela, the actual benefit was in spreading political authority more willingly than any apparent economic return.”

In fact, Latin America’s intercontinental ties have for long been more assorted than caricature permits, but they are becoming even more so as the globe transforms. For some South American nations, Europe has at all times been in any case as significant as a trade and venture partner as the United States. Trade with Japan and the Middle East grew in the 1970s, while the Soviet Union sold arms to Peru as well as sustaining communist Cuba.

For the Kremlin, this is tantamount to sending Washington a memo: if you intrude in our backyard, we'll intrude in yours.....Continue