Venezuelan president arrives in Moscow

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Moscow on Tuesday for “strategic” talks on political, economic and defense cooperation.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will receive Chavez later on Tuesday. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is also expected to meet with the Venezuelan leader.

Upon his arrival in Moscow, Chavez called for Russia and Venezuela to become strategic partners in oil and defense, something he said would “guarantee Venezuela’s sovereignty, which is currently being threatened by the United States.”

Ahead of his two-day visit, Chavez thanked Moscow for its recent support, including the provision of loans for the modernization of Venezuela’s armed forces.

China, Russia finally fix long-disputed border

China and Russia signed an agreement Monday that ended a decades-long territorial dispute and finally determined their borders, in the latest sign of warming ties between the former Cold War foes.
The protocol, signed by the two countries’ foreign ministers in Beijing, added to an existing agreement on their 4,300-kilometre (2,700-mile) boundary, meaning all of the frontier is now set.

“China and Russia have discussed their border for over 40 years. It’s no simple matter that we have now demarcated the border in its entirety,” Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said, after the agreement was signed.

“At a political level, it’s a mutually beneficial, win-win result,” he told reporters at a briefing at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in the Chinese capital.

A bitter rift during the Cold War saw the one-time communist allies fight skirmishes along their border.

Russia mulls regular bomber flights to Cuba: report

Russia may start regular flights by long-range bombers to Cuba in response to US plans to build missile defence sites in Eastern Europe, the newspaper Izvestia reported Monday, quoting an official.
“Such discussions exist,” the unidentified senior Russian air force official was quoted as saying, adding that the measure would be a response to the United States “deploying missile defence systems in Poland and the Czech Republic.”

It was not clear whether he meant permanently basing the bombers in Cuba or using the island as a refuelling stop, but former top defence ministry official Leonid Ivashov told the newspaper that Cuba was best used for brief stopovers.

Cuba should be used “not as a permanent base — this is unnecessary — but as a stopover airfield, a refuelling stop,” Ivashov was quoted as saying.

Kremlin youth group seeks new role in Medvedev`s Russia

Military training, satirical shows and US-style business seminars were among the strange mix of activities on offer at this year’s summer camp for Nashi — the Kremlin’s youth movement.

With political power in Russia now firmly in the hands of President Dmitry Medvedev and his mentor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, it seems that the massive group set up to counter any popular dissent has lost its focus.

As the movement searches for a new purpose in Medvedev’s Russia, its activists say one solution could be to concentrate on beating the West at its own game by making the most of the country’s oil-fueled economic boom.