Russia Lends Chavez $2B in Arms Deal

Chavez to beef up weapons to rebuff expected attack by 'the empire'
By Mat Probasco,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 14, 2009 2:47 AM CDT
Russia Lends Chavez $2B in Arms Deal
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appear together outside the Barvikha presidential residence near Moscow last week.   (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Dmitry Astakhov, Presidential Press Service)

Russia has agreed to lend Venezuela more than $2 billion to buy Russian-made weaponry to ward off what the South American country sees as an imminent US-Colombian attack, reports the BBC. "With these rockets, it is going to be very difficult for them to come and bomb us," said socialist President Hugo Chavez. Chavez plans to buy nearly 100 tanks and anti-aircraft systems as tensions mount in the wake of a Colombia agreement to grant the US more access to military bases there.
(More Hugo Chavez stories.)

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