15-05-01 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said after his first day in his visit to Russia that he and his host, Russian President Vladimir Putin have similar views on world affairs. "My encounter with President Putin was very warm, very human," Chavez said, and though he was at pains to deny that he had come to Russia with the aim of buying arms, he said "if it should later be necessary, then fine, we'll do it." Putin praised Chavez as "the dynamic representative of a new generation of leaders keenly interested in developing Ruso-Venezuelan relations".
Chavez indicated that he and Putin share a vision of the world in which power must be more evenly distributed to offset the unipolar influence of the United States, and that his dream of a "Bolivarian federation" of Caribbean and Latin American nations fits into that scheme.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared that they would work together to form a strategic alliance against US dominance as the world's only superpower, with both leaders calling for a multi-polar world that could challenge the supremacy of the United State. "We aren't trying to be or act like a superpower, but rather a group of countries that draw on their own strength, which is what we have. Now all we need to do is find a way of articulating and reinforcing it."
Chavez reiterated that he was impressed by the extent to which their "strategic world views" overlap and by Russia's "tremendous desire to build bridges to Latin America". "We are both totally opposed to a world in which all the power is focused at one point."

The Venezuelan president is in 4 days visit to Russia. He is expected to go to Volvograd, in the south, an industrial and energy producing centre, with an eye toward development projects and bilateral cooperation. With his visit to Russia, Chavez begins a 21 day world tour that will include Iran, China, Bangladesh and Malaysia and an unofficial stop in India.