- Russia will help Venezuela build plants
to make Kalashnikov rifles and ammunition after the United States restricted
arms sales to the South American nation, President Hugo Chavez said on
Tuesday, Reuters news agency reports.
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- Chavez also told a press conference in
Quito, Ecuador, that a delivery of 30,000 Kalashnikov automatic rifles
was due to arrive from Russia in early June. "The Russians are going
to install a Kalashnikov rifle plant and a munitions factory. So we can
defend every street, every hill, every corner," he said in remarks
broadcast in Venezuela.
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- Washington banned all weapons sales to
Chavez's leftist government this month because of U.S. concern about his
ties with Cuba and Iran and what it calls his inaction against guerrillas
in neighboring Colombia.
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- The sanctions led to a diplomatic coolness
with Venezuela, a major U.S. energy supplier and the world's No. 5 oil
exporter.
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- Chavez rattled the White House earlier
with a deal to buy 100,000 Russian automatic weapons. Earlier this year,
the United States expressed concern about Spain's plans to sell $1.56 billion
in military ships and planes to Venezuela.
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- Chavez charges the United States with
orchestrating a 2002 coup that briefly toppled his government and frequently
accuses the United States of planning to invade Venezuela. "The invasion
plan is prepared, we even have part of this plan. They change it of course,"
Chavez said, although he added he was working to avoid such an attack.
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- Washington denies it plans to invade
Venezuela and says Chavez is destabilizing the region.
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- Russia is the world's No. 2 oil exporter.
Russia's Gazprom is exploring for natural gas in Venezuela, and Russian
oil major LUKOIL says it wants to invest up to $1 billion in developing
Venezuelan deposits.
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- http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/05/31/chavezruss.shtml
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