Eight years of Putin in the Russian Presidency: A balance

Russia also reclaimed some ground in the African continent, principally with sales of arms and mineral exploration projects. The principal partners are Libya, Algeria and Angola (where Russian enterprises are the principal foreign companies that explore oil and diamonds). Russia's relations with Latin America are still not very deep. In 2002 Putin closed the last Russian military base in Cuba, being removed almost completely from the country (probably as a gesture of good-will to Washington). However, Venezuela has been approached, which has been buying many Russian arms to substitute the North Americans, since the USA does not sell any more spare parts. Also they are initiating agreements for Russian enterprises to begin to explore gas and oil. On the other hand, two bigger economies of South America, Brazil and Argentina, still have few relations with Russia, and they almost only include the export of meat.

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European-Russian relations got worse with the entry of ex-socialist countries to the European Union in 2004 (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania). Though there are exceptions, many of these countries have a strongly anti-Russian political diary and try to impede new agreements.

Particularly notable was the case of Poland, that vetoed a new agreement of cooperation between the European Union and Russia because this one canceled the import of Polish meat due to sanitary questions: a bilateral subject that can be resolved only by two involved countries without damaging the interests of many people. However, Russia and Poland concluded an agreement for improving the exports of meat, and it is possible that the Polish veto will be lifted.

Moreover, the "New Europe" (as the North American neoconservatives regard the countries of the old Soviet block) in general is more interested in pleasing Washington than Brussels and Poland again is an emblematic case, since it accepted the proposal for the establishment of an anti-missile defense system of the USA installed on its territory without consulting its neighbors or many members of NATO (the military alliance that wraps the USA and almost all the countries of Europe), and very often it criticizes common European values, like the removal of the death penalty.

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