MOSCOW, Russia (AFP): Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is to visit Russia later this month, his Moscow embassy said Friday, with speculation that he could place an order for submarines.
"The Venezuelan president will be in Moscow on June 28 and 29 and in Rostov-on-Don (in southern Russia) on June 30," the embassy said, quoted by the Ria-Novosti news agency.
It gave no details of his programme.
Earlier this week the daily newspaper Kommersant said Caracas wants to buy up to nine submarines and could clinch the deal during the visit, a sale that would cast a shadow over the meeting between US and Russian Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin at the beginning of July.
Chavez is one of the most outspoken critics of US policy in the western hemisphere.
According to Kommersant, quoting sources in naval construction and the arms sales business, Caracas has ordered five 636 and four 677E Amur class diesel-powered subs.
It said the submarines could be used to breach a possible United States blockade.
Oil-rich Venezuela has been spending heavily on military equipment to modernise its armed forces, buying 24 Russian Sukhoi fighters, 35 Russian military helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles.
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