Venezuelan president: Russia must revere and revive the ideas of Lenin

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday told Russians they should revere and revive the ideas of the Soviet Union's founder Vladimir Lenin.

	"We should remember Vladimir Lenin and come back to his ideas, especially when it comes to anti-imperialism," Chavez said (newsfoxx.de)
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"We should remember Vladimir Lenin and come back to his ideas, especially when it comes to anti-imperialism," Chavez told the audience at the opening of a Moscow cultural center named for the South American revolutionary hero Simon Bolivar.

The rhetoric was vintage Chavez - mainly aimed at portraying Venezuela as a bastion of defiance of the United States. Chavez's comments emphasized Venezuela's solidarity with the Kremlin leadership, which frequently complains of Washington's alleged dominance of global affairs.

Both Russia and Venezuela "stand for the formation of democratic, multipolar world-building," a Kremlin official said on customary condition of anonymity before Chavez's meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

Despite that common stance, Chavez's visit to Russia is low-key in comparison to previous visits. His meeting with Putin will only be an informal dinner.

Meanwhile, the Duma, the lower house of parliament, unexpectedly denied Chavez permission to address a plenary session - limiting him to a chat with parliament leaders in a smaller room.

The Duma is dominated by United Russia, the party that serves as the chief vehicle for Putin's programs.

The move to deny Chavez the chance to present a formal speech to lawmakers was widely seen as a Kremlin move to keep a tight leash on the exuberant and unpredictable Venezuelan populist in the days leading up to a summit between Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush.

"It appears the Kremlin doesn't want to irritate the White House on the eve of the Kennebunkport meeting," the newspaper Kommersant observed Thursday.

Putin and Bush meet Sunday and Monday at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, in a summit seen as a last chance for the two leaders to mend frayed U.S.-Russian relations before Putin's term expires next spring.

After Russia, Chavez travels to Tehran for talks aimed at further deepening ties with Iran, one of Venezuela's closest allies outside Latin America.

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