Putin offers nuclear energy help to Chavez

Russia said on Thursday it was ready to consider helping Venezuela develop a peaceful nuclear energy program, a gesture that will displease Washington as two of its sharpest critics draw closer.

“We are all ready to look at the possibility of operating in the sphere of peaceful atomic energy,” Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said as he welcomed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for late-evening talks at his residence on the outskirts of Moscow.

Nuclear energy is a sensitive issue between the United States and Russia, which this week forced the scrapping of an international meeting to discuss sanctions against Iran over its atomic program.

Russia has stepped up cooperation with Venezuela, an arch-foe of Washington, since coming under strong U.S. condemnation for fighting a war against Georgia last month.

Read it all.

Posted in * International News & Commentary, Europe, Russia, South America

6 comments on “Putin offers nuclear energy help to Chavez

  1. Milton says:

    How hypocritical can Putin and Chavez get? Venezuela is sitting on a huge pool of oil and they “need” nuclear power? About as much as the Religion of Peace actually produces peace wherever it goes.

  2. Newbie Anglican says:

    This is not tolerable. It’s time to get tough with Putin.

  3. Sick & Tired of Nuance says:

    This is in response to our placing the “defensive shield” missiles in Eastern Europe. They did a similar thing with Cuba in response to our placing Atlas missiles in Turkey. I think we should sit back and let them spend billions to build the new capability in Venezuela and just before it is finished have a “naval exercise” off the coast. During the “war game” a salvo of cruise missiles should go tragically “off course” and just happen to impact all of the nuclear sites. We would apologize and act embarrassed at this terrible disclosure of the inaccuracy of our missile technology. We could then promise to improve our missiles in the future so they would never go “off course” again.

  4. Newbie Anglican says:

    #3, Sounds like a good plan to me. 🙂

  5. Bryan McKenzie says:

    Putin is also giving Chavez a billion dollars to buy weapons

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/27/world/americas/27chavez.html?hp

  6. Jeffersonian says:

    It will be interesting to see how long it takes for FARC to get some of those weapons.