The following is an exclusive translation from today’s edition of El Nacional, a leading daily newspaper in Venezuela – an interview with an expert on Russia-Venezuela relations.

EL NACIONAL – Domingo 21 de Diciembre de 2008Mundo/14

Carlos Romero – an academic disapproves ideologization

Chavez operates with Russia like the Cold War

The UCV and Unimet professor argues that the government is looking to get into the international game through the rivalry between Washington and Moscow

BY ARMANDO AVELLANEDA

Politicization and ideologization are, for Carlos Romero, professor of international relations at the Central University of Venezuela and the Metropolitan, the words that best sum up in his judgment the management of Hugo Chavez’s diplomatic relations with Russia in 2008.

He does not think it is entirely negative that relations have been getting closer with Moscow. He regrets, however, that the president is using these relations to attack the United States and attempt to play “international poker.”