Chavez due in Moscow as Russian warships head to Venezuela

Sep 25, 2008, 12:53 GMT

Moscow - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is due to land in Russia on Thursday for a two-day visit as the two countries extend military ties and close rank in opposition to the United States.

Chavez travels to Moscow from China, and will meet with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at his country residence at 8 pm (1700 GMT), Putin's press office said.

On Friday the Venezuelan leader is set to fly to the southern Russian city of Orenburg, near the border with Kazakhstan, for talks with President Dmitry Medvedev, who is on a tour of the regions.

Chavez's visit comes as four Russian navy warships sailed to Venezuela for joint military exercises in the Caribbean, and the flight earlier this month of two Russian Tu-160 nuclear bombers from Russia to Venezuela.

The show of force by Russia in the Western hemisphere and its rapprochement with fiery US critic Chavez looks set to exacerbate an already tense security standoff with Washington over Russia's war with US ally Georgia last month.

In an interview with Russia's Vesti-24 television Chavez said South America needed a close alliance with Russia to counter US influence in the region.

'Not only Venezuela, but Latin America as a whole, needs friends like Russia now, as we are ridding ourselves of imperial domination,' Chavez said in the interview, which aired on Sunday.

The Venezuelan president has held many summits with Russian leaders in an effort to solidify ties in recent years, including the purchase of billions of dollars in arms from Moscow.

A Kremlin official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Thursday that from 2005 Russia had sealed weapons contracts with Venezuela to the value of over 4.4 billion dollars.

Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin led a Russian delegation on a regional tour that began on the communist island of Cuba in another sign that Moscow is seeking to restore Soviet-era ties in South America.