Russian Vice Prime Minister Igor Sechin said he did not rule out that Russia would supply a large number of tanks to Venezuela.

Commenting on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s recent statement on plans to purchase Russian military hardware, Sechin said, “Chavez is one of the leading politicians in the world. He is a vivid personality and he is a big friend of Russia. I can say about him that if he pledged something, he’d do this.”

At the same time, he stressed that such decisions might be taken only by presidents – “this is the highest competence”. Sechin said: “Military- technical cooperation has big significance for the Russian economy because this will allow our enterprises to carry out orders.”

“We have full power to ensure security of our country, our borders and our population. Therefore, we have full power to make necessary purchases for this purpose,” Venezuelan Vice President Ramon Carrizales said.

A working group operates within the Russian-Venezuelan inter-governmental high level cooperation commission. The group deals with military-technical problems. It prepares proposals to strengthen interaction in this field.