Russia to ship 35 tanks to Venezuela soon

Russia will soon deliver 35 tanks to Venezuela, said Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday.

Putin said Russia fulfilled the agreements on military- technical cooperation completely, without specifying the types of the tanks.

Experts supposed those would be T-72M1M, according to the Itar- Tass news agency.

Putin noted that all enterprises which produced arms for Venezuela have already been paid for the orders.

Chavez, in turn, thanked Russia for high quality of its warplanes and tanks. He mentioned that Russia would build a plant producing Kalashnikov assault rifles and ammunition factory.

Besides arms-production plants, Russia will help Venezuela in construction industry, cocoa and flowers plantations development, Chavez added.

"(Russian President Dmitry) Medvedev continued what you have started," Chavez told Putin.

During Chavez's visit to Russia that started Thursday, a total of 10 agreements have been signed between the two countries, including one on building nuclear power plant in Venezuela.

Chavez's visit to Russia was part of his international tour that would also take him to Belarus, Ukraine and Iran.

Source: Xinhua