http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idne...

It was Nov. 7, the anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, and Medvedev and the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Igor Sechin, were accompanying their host, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, at the inauguration of operations by UrdanetaGazprom, a partnership with Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA to explore for gas in the northwestern Gulf of Venezuela.

Moments earlier, perched on the scaffolding of bars and walkways on the Escorpión Vigilante, a platform rented from the United States, Chávez saluted the "strategic alliance between two energy giants," his own country and Russia, "the homeland of Lenin."

The ceremony under the blazing Caribbean sun underlined the importance Caracas attaches to its alliance with Moscow, the numerous economic pacts that sustain it, and the remarkable intensification and acceleration of these agreements this month. "Russia is clearly taking advantage, for the benefit of its companies, of the opportunities opened up by Venezuela, which has self-imposed ideological blinkers," political analyst and professor of economics and international affairs Orlando Ochoa told IPS. "At the same time, Russia is advancing in the terrain of global geopolitical confrontation."

For his part, Chávez "is motivated by geopolitical fears inspired by the United States and Colombia and, in accordance with his view that political agreements should be cemented by business ties, is offering the Russians a wide range of opportunities," said Ochoa, who has been monitoring relations between the two countries for several years.