Chavez is becoming very unpopular at home; The US backed Columbian military have made incursions into Venezuela. Chavez has an inferior military. He desperately needs new modern weapons surprise surprise Russia has just promised to supply Chavez with new modern missiles Chavez proudly announces that “these will work” at the very same time he recognises Abkhazia/South Ossetia now I wonder if the two are linked? Or am I being over cynical because you never know these 3 states(thousands of miles apart) may have a lot to offer each other?

Instead of worrying about Chavez why not worry about what your country is not doing: Like fixing the Health Care system. Bail out the people who have paid their taxes religiously in the past 10-15 years and not the people who get all the corporate bail out monies so they can go play in foreign lands. After all we are several thousand miles from Abkhazia just like Chavez is (your point). So, why should we care.