CARACAS, August 24 (Itar-Tass) — President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela said Wednesday he would like to visit Russia before the end of this year or at the beginning of next year.
As he spoke at the end of his talks with the visiting Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, he thanked the Russian leaders for an invitation to come to Moscow.
“Please give an embrace to President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on my behalf and convey my greetings to the entire people of Russia,” Chavez said.
Lavrov said on his part Russia’s political leaders are always glad to see Chavez in Moscow.
“I’ll certainly come to Moscow,” Chavez said firmly. “The only thing is I’ll have to put on more warm clothes now, probably the Russian fur hat.”
He also said the Venezuelan finance minister will visit Moscow in a few weeks’ time to discuss the possibility of getting a Russian loan in the amount of $ 4 billion.
“We’re interested in this loan and our finance minister will go to Moscow […] to discuss the details,” Chavez said.
He did not specify whether or not Venezuela would like to spend all the monies for purchasing new defense technologies.
“We have a variety of project,” Chavez said.