Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had taken a one-day trip to Venezuela to personally talk with Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela, on the matters of setting up a nuclear plant for civilian purposes instead of developing nuclear weapons.

Philip J. Crowley questioned the legitimacy of Venezuela's consumption of Russian military weapons, the U.S warned Venezuela of its weapon proliferation.

Not so surprisingly, Russia and Venezuela became closer after Hugo Chavez had purchased nearly 4.1 billion U.S dollars worth of military equipment from Russia over recent years since 2005.

China is also a close trade partner with Venezuela; Russia and Venezuela however remains to be more closer as the two had just established a cooperative deal where a joint expedition for oil has commenced in the eastern region of Venezuela.

Earlier today, Russian P.M Putin had again met Hugo Chavez to discuss further cooperation on projects and agreements concerning nuclear energy and the supplying of even more weapons. Putin’s announcement of Venezuelan orders of Russian military equipment could exceed 5$ billion dollars, the equivalent of nearly 146 Russian rubles. This sum includes Russia’s loan of 2.21 billion to Venezuela so the Latin American country can get the Russian weapons.

U.S reaction to this announcement contained a concerned tone about Venezuela’s overwhelming weapon purchases which might “migrate to other parts of the hemisphere” as stated by State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley.

The United States has further warned Venezuela that its buildup of military arsenal might unstabilize regional peace. The U.S maintains that while Venezuela as an independent nation can establish any kind of relation they want with Russia, it doesn’t see how the purchases can be for legitimate national defence.

Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez insisted that this recent buildup of his country’s military was only for national defence in response to the American troops stationed in Colombia along with the American fund-pouring of around 500 million USD into the Colombian military which has caused a general feeling of “political claustrophobia” for Chavez.

Chavez’s “grocery list” has several choice items ranging from Mi-28N combat helicopters to Su-30MK2 fighters and to the usual armor such as the Russian model T tanks along with Varshavyanka-class submarines with complete sets of air defense systems. Venezuela, evidently, remains to be the biggest consumer of Russian military equipment in the Americas.