Unbeknownst to many, Igor Sechin allegedly worked with the famous arms dealer Viktor Bout back in Mozambique in the 1980s?  As you probably already know and as RobertAmsterdam.com has documented, we have been monitoring orders for more Russian tanks from Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez while at the same time more and more FARC links to Caracas are surfacing.

It’s strange to think that the individual who somehow weaved the ties of Russian weapons to the Venezuelans and then onward to FARC is in a Thai jail, where, apparently, the authorities are under the impression that FARC is not even a terrorist organization but moreso a political party.  According to this editorial in the Washington Post, the Russian government has been pushing the Thais very hard not to extradite Bout to the United States, where his trial could spill some serious secrets.  In fact, he stands a good chance of being set free, as Thai judges seem to respond well to offers of cheap oil, fighter jets, and the classic, straight up bribe.

At any rate, here is a beginner’s guide from Ariel Cohen and Owen B. Graham in the Washington Times:

The framework for the arms deal was partially laid during Russian deputy premier and energy czar Igor Sechin’s visit to Caracas in July. During Mr. Sechin’s trip, a number of wide-ranging cooperation accords covering energy, military and agricultural cooperation were signed. Mr. Sechin’s trip was intended to prepare the ground for Mr. Chavez’s upcoming visit to Moscow.

Mr. Sechin, the head of the siloviki (men of power), has emerged as Russia’s point man on global energy geopolitics. He graduated from Leningrad State University (Vladimir Putin’s alma mater) in 1984 as a linguist in Portuguese and French. In the 1980s, Mr. Sechin worked in Mozambique and in Angola, officially as an interpreter, but according to numerous intelligence sources, he was a Glavnoye Razvedyvatel’noye Upravleniye (GRU) officer there.

Their statist efforts are excessively strengthening the state, limiting political freedoms, expanding geopolitical clout, and threatening American friends. It may be time for the State Department to declare Venezuela a terrorist-sponsoring state. Both Russia and Venezuela are among Iran’s principal supporters and have contacts with Hezbollah and Hamas.

Geopolitical information service Stratfor claims that Mr. Sechin was “the USSR’s point man for weapons smuggling to much of Latin America and the Middle East.” He reportedly served with well-known international arms dealer Viktor Bout in Mozambique in the 1980s.

Russia uses arms sales to gain friends and influence governments. Weapons are a key component of the Kremlin’s relationship with Venezuela. This deal builds on previous arms sales worth $4.4 billion signed between 2005 and 2007, which included advanced Sukhoi fighter jets, combat helicopters, and 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles, plus a whole factory to produce more.

Besides capitalizing on arms and energy as foreign-policy tools, Venezuelan and Russian leaders are among the trendsetters in the democracy rollback taking place since the late 1990s. The rulers of Russia and Venezuela are increasingly rejecting civil society, muzzling or manipulating the media, and narrowing political space in their respective countries. Recently, Mr. Chavez cracked down on opposition radio stations. Both governments have mounted sustained attacks on the rule of law, and limited market access to keep out international energy companies.