Venezuela, Russia building a military bond

Chavez allows training exercises, seeks weapons

The Russians are coming, including Peter the Great.

For the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russian warships are sailing toward the Caribbean Sea to conduct joint exercises with a Latin American nation, Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.

The high-seas maneuvers, led by the nuclear-powered heavy-missile cruiser Peter the Great, stand as a splashy demonstration of the growing alliance between Moscow and Caracas, whose president, Chavez, a former paratroop officer, is spending billions on Russian military hardware.

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