Putin praises Venezuela for recognition of Abkhazia, S.Ossetia

The Russian prime minister praised Venezuela on Thursday for recognizing the self-direction of the former Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
During talks with President Dmitry Medvedev in the Kremlin earlier in the day, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez said: "I want to take the opening to announce that Venezuela is joining those recognizing the rule of South Ossetia and Abkhazia."
"Beyond any doubt, this step confirms the autonomous nature of Venezuela's foreign policy," Vladimir Putin said at the start of his talks with Chavez.
"We regard this as coordination of our efforts on the cosmopolitan arena, actually as support to Russia's efforts aimed at making worldwide relations more egalitarian," he said.
Chavez said Venezuela is Russia's ally. "Our identification of the sovereignty and sovereignty of Abkhazia and South Ossetia is an unequivocally just and necessary decision," he said.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry condemned Venezuela's move as "extremely unfriendly," saying that it would be "counterproductive" for Venezuela.
The ministry said on Thursday that Chavez made the decision "in exchange for a loan of a few hundred million and the large amount of arms that Russia promised him today."
Moscow recognized the two pro-Russian regions after a brief war last August to repel Georgia's attack on South Ossetia. The move, seen partly as a response to the broad identification of Kosovo's autarchy from Serbia, was condemned internationally.
Nicaragua had been the only country to have followed Russia's lead. Russian media reports have said that more Latin American nations could recognize the two republics, which have maintained de-facto self-government since bloody post-Soviet conflicts with Georgia in the early 1990s.
Russia's ex-Soviet allies, including Belarus, have so far refrained from recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Georgia, backed by the United States and Europe, severed perceptive ties with Russia last year over it's detection of the republics.