
Venezuela will allocate $480 million to upgrade its Sukhoi fighter jets from Russia. President Nicolas Maduro just authorized the payment of $480 million so that the service life of our Sukhoi planes and continue to fulfill their duty and give protection to the Venezuelan airspace, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez was quoted, by Moscow's Sputnik news agency on Thursday.

Argentine president Cristina Fernandez and Russia's Vladimir Putin exchanged praise and compliments during a videoconference on Wednesday marking the 130th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between both nations.

France has agreed to sell two Mistral helicopter carriers to Egypt for 950 million Euros after their sale to Russia was canceled in August, French officials said on Wednesday.

Argentine Economy Minister Axel Kicillof speaking from Moscow said ties between Buenos Aires and Russia were “a fact, not a wish” praising the bilateral “natural understanding” and “complementation”, achieved by the two partners in economic, energy and trade affairs.

Barely a few days after Europe’s most powerful leaders presented a common front on Russian sanctions; President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia landed in Italy and met privately with Pope Francis at the Vatican, his second audience with the pope in the past 18 months.

Russian president Vladimir Putin waded into the FIFA scandal by accusing the United States of interfering in FIFA affairs after the US Justice Department ordered Swiss police to arrest seven senior FIFA officials on Wednesday. They were among nine current and former FIFA officials indicted.

The cooperation agreements recently signed by Argentina with Russia could be a Buenos Aires' response to the situation with the disputed Falkland Islands territories, former Russian ambassador to Argentina Evgeny Astakhov told the Russian news agency, Sputnik International on Friday.

Russia and Argentina signed agreements which amounted to an all-encompassing strategic partnership during Argentine President Cristina Fernandez visit to Moscow, which ended on Thursday with the meeting at the Kremlin with her counterpart Vladimir Putin.

President Cristina Fernandez, CFK, on an official visit to Russia met at the Kremlin with Vladimir Putin and praised Moscow’s support to Argentina in the dispute with the United Kingdom over the sovereignty of the Falklands/Malvinas Islands as well as in the legal battle against speculative funds suing the country over its defaulted bonds.

“Argentina is a country where it is worth investing in and producing, not only because of its natural resources, also because of the human resources we have” said president Cristina Fernández in Moscow on an official visit to Russia. She praised the “recovery of Argentina's flag carrier that allows connectivity among all the zones in the country, not only the richest ones.”