"The USA is using its political, economic and military weight in an attempt to limit Russia's participation in the market," said Ivashov.
He also believes that the USA is seeking to belittle Russia's role on the world scene, above all, in the effort to build up other states' defenses. The USA policy toward weakening the Latin American military shield is obvious, according to Ivashov.
"The USA is all-out to undermine the Latin Americans' capacity to uphold their sovereignty and independence. The goal of such a policy is to place these states under the USA's sway and control," said the expert, adding that Russia should by no means yield to such pressure.
Official Washington expressed this Friday concern over deliveries to Venezuela of more than 100,000 Russian assault rifles "with a potential destabilizing effect for the entire hemisphere", according to the US Department of State's deputy spokesman Adam Ereli.
"The sale of Kalashnikov assault-rifles to Venezuela is a matter of bilateral Russian-Venezuelan relations; these deliveries comply with international norms and therefore no comments are required," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"The argument that terrorists will choose exactly Russian guns to lay hands on looks biased and groundless," said the Russian foreign ministry's press department.
"One can be equally apprehensive of any weapons sold on the world markets, including fire-arms made in the USA," noted the ministry.
For his part, Venezuiela's Vice-President Jose Vicente Rangel blamed the USA in a special communique for continued provocative declarations.
He specified that the acquisition of Russia-made rifles means a planned move under theprogram of Venezuelan army modernization rather than the escalation of the arms race.
