Russia offers Chavez nuclear help amid US tensions

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was to meet Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on Friday after Russia risked Washington's wrath by offering the fierce US foe help developing nuclear energy.

The two were to meet in the city of Orenburg after hawkish Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told Chavez in Moscow on Thursday that Russia was "ready to consider the possibility of cooperation in nuclear energy..."

"Today like never before all that you said on the multi-polar world becomes reality. Let us not lose time," Chavez told Putin. "The world is fast developing geopolitically..."

"Latin America has become an important chain-link in creating a multipolar world, and we will pay more attention to this vector," [Putin] said.

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Chavez, Medvedev oversee signing of oil, gas deals, increasing Russian-Venezuelan ties