Meeting Between Putin and Chavez Is a Real Gusher

They’re both young, sporty world leaders. Both are busily cultivating America’s opponents. Both dislike America’s world domination and both have an interest in high oil prices.

A smile plastered from ear to ear, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez literally bounced into the Kremlin on Monday, seized Russia’s Vladimir V. Putin and pumped his arm vigorously, mimed a judo move and plied the Russian leader with questions about his black belt in the martial art.

So briskly did the Latin American leader thaw the stiff and formal Kremlin protocol that Russian journalists were agog.

However, amid the backslapping, laughter and hearty references to each other’s sporting prowess, there were distinct signs of a raspberry directed at Washington.

“In the world, they characterize us the same way. We believe in democracy, but not the kind of democracy forced on us,” said Chavez, a 46-year-old former baseball player who predicted a warm friendship with the 48-year-old Putin.

Putin and Chavez were both democratically elected but have raised eyebrows in Washington by energetically pursuing ties with leaders who are not.

Last fall, Chavez became the first democratically elected leader to visit Iraq’s Saddam Hussein since the Persian Gulf War, while Putin received Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan in Moscow last month. Russia is campaigning for an end to U.N. trade sanctions against Iraq.

Both leaders have visited Cuba, and on Monday they called for an end to the decades-long U.S.-led blockade against the Communist nation. Both have cultivated Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, and both have ties with Iran.

With Russia negotiating to sell arms to Iran despite strong U.S. objections, Putin received Iranian President Mohammad Khatami in Moscow in March.

Putin and Chavez signed a statement calling for a multipolar world, a diplomatic catch phrase that translates as opposition to America’s world dominance.

After visiting Moscow, Chavez is scheduled to tour fellow OPEC members Iran and Indonesia, as well as China, India, Bangladesh and Malaysia. His three-week trip is part of a foreign policy offensive intended to make him a player on the world stage.

Despite their worries about Chavez, U.S. leaders have responded cautiously to him because of Venezuela’s significance. Not only is Venezuela the top supplier of oil to the U.S., it is a key player in an Andean region convulsed by political upheaval, violence and poverty.

Chavez, a loquacious former paratrooper who spent two years in prison for leading a coup attempt in 1992, has shown affinity for extremists ranging from Carlos the Jackal, a Venezuelan-born terrorist imprisoned in France, to Argentina’s “painted faces” commandos, an ultra-right group.

Chavez’s ideology mixes populism, nationalism and Third World solidarity. Although he evokes the dream of Latin American unity, he has clashed with his neighbors. Some Colombian leaders accuse him of being friendly with Colombian leftist guerrillas fighting a war financed by drug trafficking and kidnapping.

The Venezuelan leader’s visit comes with Russia-U.S. relations tense because of plans by the Bush administration to scuttle the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty--seen by Moscow as the centerpiece of global nuclear security--and build a national missile defense shield.

Yet, if Chavez is looking to form a cozy club of democrats against Washington, Putin might not be quite the man. The Russian president has been more moderate and cautious. During Putin’s December trip to Cuba, he emphatically denied an anti-U.S. alliance between Moscow and Havana.

Political analyst Andrei V. Kortunov of the Russian Science Foundation said the Kremlin did not want Monday’s meeting to come across as a deliberate provocation of the U.S.

“But it is eagerly using this opportunity to stress the importance of a multipolar world and thus send a message [to the U.S.] that ‘you’re not the only big guy in town,’ ” Kortunov said.

Aside from once more signaling Russia’s determination to cultivate ties among countries that Washington frowns upon, Putin had clear, pragmatic reasons for Monday’s exchange.

The motive is oil and Venezuela’s present leadership of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Though Russia is not a member of OPEC, it is one of the largest exporters outside the group, and its economy is heavily dependent on oil.

Russia’s budget relies on high oil prices for revenue through taxes and state ownership or part ownership of various oil firms.

Chavez thanked Putin for pledging support for high prices, declaring that it is vital not to allow them to fall.

“Russia is trying to strengthen its ties with OPEC, to become its real partner and maybe one day to join its ranks. So this meeting is very important for Russia, which is no longer satisfied with a limited role as a passive object on the oil market,” Kortunov said.

“This meeting demonstrates that Russia wants to become a player on the oil market and to get closer to decision-making in a sphere so vital to the Russian economy,” he said.

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Times staff writer Sebastian Rotella in Buenos Aires contributed to this report.