Venezuelan and Russian officials have agreed to create a $4 billion joint development bank to finance gas production, aluminum mining and other projects, Venezuela's information ministry said Saturday. It was not clear how much each energy-rich country would contribute as oil and gas prices continue to slide, but Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his country could tap its foreign currency reserves to bankroll the fund. “Russia and Venezuela are establishing a strategic alliance,” Chavez said as he and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin mingled Friday with workers from the nations' two state-run oil and gas companies on a drilling platform in the Gulf of Venezuela. “We have freed ourselves from Yankee imperialism,” Chavez said. The men inaugurated the first Venezuelan-Russian offshore natural gas project, with Chavez hailing his country's increasingly close ties to Russia as a counterweight to US influence. Venezuela has South America's largest natural gas reserves, including 27 trillion cubic feet in the Gulf of Venezuela, but they've remained largely untapped.
