Vladimir Putin visits Nicaragua as part of Latin American swing
Russian leader thumbs his nose at Ukraine sanctions in four-nation trip
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise stop in Nicaragua after visiting Cuba on a trip seen by some analysts as his way of thumbing his nose at Brussels and Washington, which have slapped sanctions on some of his closest allies over the Ukrainian conflict.
Putin later arrived in Buenos Aires, where he was to hold talks with President Cristina Fernandez. He will head to Brazil today, where he will take part in a summit of the BRICS group of emerging countries - an agenda that neatly aligns with his push for a multipolar world at a time when the Ukraine crisis has brought Moscow-Washington relations to a post-cold-war low.
Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega, whose country was close to the Soviet Union under the Sandinista regime of the 1980s, welcomed Putin at Managua's airport along with his wife.
"This is the first time that a Russian president visits Nicaragua," a beaming Ortega said at a brief airport media event. Through an interpreter Putin said that his government intends to continue strengthening economic ties with Nicaragua.
Putin said before the trip that he has his eye on Latin America's oil and bauxite, and plans to woo regional leaders with offers of increased Russian investment and trade in return.
Moscow was seeking comprehensive technological partnerships with Latin America in the oil and gas sector, hydropower, nuclear energy, aircraft construction and the bio pharmaceutical industry, Putin told Cuba's state news agency Prensa Latina.