Chavez says Latin America needs Russia

 © AP

2008-09-21 14:55:01 - MOSCOW (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in an interview broadcast Sunday that Latin America needs strong friendship with Russia to help reduce U.S. influence and keep peace in the region.  Venezuela recently hosted a pair of Russian strategic bombers and is preparing to conduct a joint exercise with a Russian Navy squadron. Russian media say Chavez is planning to visit Moscow Friday, his second trip in just over two months.  «Not only Venezuela, but Latin America as a whole, needs friends like Russia now as we are shedding this domination,» Chavez told Russia's Vesti 24 television. «We need Russia for economic and social development, for all-round support, for the life of the peoples of our continent, for peace.  During the Cold War, Latin America became an ideological battleground between the Soviet Union and the United States.  Under Chavez, Venezuela has cultivated close ties with Moscow and placed big orders for Russian jets, helicopters and other weapons. Chavez has repeatedly warned that the U.S. poses a threat to Venezuela.  Russia has signed weapons contracts worth more than US$4 billion (¤2.81 billion) with Venezuela since 2005 to supply Sukhoi fighter jets, Mi-17 helicopters, and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles. Chavez's government is now in talks to buy Russian submarines, air defense systems and armored vehicles and more Sukhoi jets.  Russian and Venezuelan leaders have also talked about boosting cooperation in the energy sphere to create what Chavez has called «a new strategic energy alliance.