CARACAS, Monday November 10, 2008 | Update
World
The death of 20 people inside a Russian nuclear-powered submarine
due to an accident is, according to experts, an inconvenience
for Moscow, as it would like to uphold its military strength
and its role of world super power.
The accident -due to the release of noxious gases for the
sudden triggering of the fire-fighting system in the submarine
during some testing- was untimely. Russian President Dmitri
Medvedev will attend ending November together with his Venezuelan
counterpart Hugo Chávez, naval exercises in front of
Venezuelan coasts, AFP reported.
After the Kursk tragedy in 2002, resulting in 118 casualties,
and subsequent multiple untoward events, the latest episode
is "a sharp blow to the Russian military industry," said Pavel
Felgenhauer, an expert in defense issues.
In the opinion of Felgenhauer, this accident seriously damages
the sector, particularly because the wrecked submarine, of
the Akula class, the fastest and quietest in the Russian marine,
was to be assigned in usufruct to the Indian Navy in 2009
for ten years.
"As for the international public opinion, some people are
keenly aware that Russian is not any stronger," said Alexandre
Goltz, a specialist in military topics of Russian e-magazine
Iejednevny Journal.
"Our armed forces regained most of their fighting potential,
but the military command, however, should ponder not only
the successes but also the failures," said Medvedev last Wednesday.
Russian leaders have tried to use the country's giant oil
resources to renew the Russian military industry, which in
the nineties, in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet
Union, was almost destroyed.
05:09 PM. Economy. If any country has cashed in on the Bolivarian revolution, that is Brazil, particularly the private companies of the southern neighbor. Over the past five years, it has been awarded contracts for works to be carried out in Venezuela for over USD 14 billion. This puts it as the first recipient of government-to-government contracts, that is, without bidding, since Hugo Chávez took office.