Post-Chavez Venezuela:what to expect

This week Latin America lost one of its most outstanding politicians. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died after a long illness at a Caracas military hospital on March 5th . The mourning for Hugo Chavez will be observed until March 17th.

For politicians all over the world, the main issue of concern is who will succeed Hugo Chavez and what is to be expected of the new government. And they have good reasons for such a concern given that Venezuela’s oil reserves are as substantial as Saudi Arabia’s, or could even be more essential.

Experts say, however, that Moscow has nothing to worry about at the moment. Vladimir Travkin of the Russian ‘Latin America’ Journal, comments.

"Chavez’s fairly stable electorate will likely support Nicolas Maduro, so good relations between Russia and Venezuela are set to continue."

Hugo Chavez established strong ties with China and friendly relations with Iran. He developed special relations with Russia. Russian companies have multibillion-dollar oil and gas contracts with Venezuela. Russia supplies Venezuela with power generating, chemical and oil production equipment, and is planning to build nuclear power plants there. In addition, Venezuela has multibillion-dollar contracts with Russia for the supply of weapons and military hardware. Even representatives of the opposition say that these contracts will be preserved.