Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Venezuela and Russia

Mercopress discusses the latest on Russia and Venezuela, as they sign 15 cooperative agreements in a variety of industries. Dmitry Medvedev is expected to visit later this month. There are two things that really caught my attention:

First, one of the agreements is to set up a $4 billion development bank to finance projects in the two countries. The Bank of the South barely exists yet, and we need yet another development bank?

Second, Chávez said, "We have freed ourselves from Yankee imperialism" and then promptly seized a Canadian gold mining operation to transform it into a Russian joint venture. Since when are Canadians also Yankees?

4 comments:

boz 12:38 PM  

Venezuela also agreed to set up a joint development bank with Iran earlier this year and $6 billion joint development fund with China late last year. They just like development banks I guess.

Greg Weeks 5:33 PM  

There is an interesting story there, though--why is this the case?

Justin Delacour 7:57 PM  

Second, Chávez said, "We have freed ourselves from Yankee imperialism" and then promptly seized a Canadian gold mining operation to transform it into a Russian joint venture. Since when are Canadians also Yankees?

Your point escapes me because you haven't explained the purported contradiction.

In case you haven't noticed, a number of countries across the region have increased their independence of the United States and also nationalized --or demanded greater royalties from-- foreign-owned ventures that are not U.S.-based. It's called resource nationalism, whose targets have always been broader than just U.S.-owned ventures.

boz 9:35 PM  

There is an interesting story there, though--why is this the case?

1) Venezuela sees this as a way to move forward bilateral relations. Some countries sign trade agreements; Venezuela creates development funds.

2) It's a good way to spread money around indirectly with multilateral cover.

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