and
signed a “strategic partnership” that included oil and gas deals, plans for Russian funding of a hydropower facility and an agreement for Russia to help build a nuclear power plant in the
country.
Mrs. Kirchner wants
– while Mr. Putin sees London as a motor behind EU sanctions on
over the
.
Russia's leader took a lengthy Latin American tour last year to demonstrate his global reach as
.
Through ties with
,
and Argentina the Kremlin wants to show it can survive with economic partners and political friends outside the Western sphere.
There have been rumors, never substantiated, that
in exchange for beef and wheat to beat EU sanctions over Ukraine.
The UK
, partly in response to the reports. Michael Fallon, the Defense Secretary, said the bombers deal had never been confirmed but added: "It is a very live threat; we have to respond to it."
Daniel Filmus, Argentina's secretary on Malvinas affairs, denied the bombers-for-beef arrangement with Moscow to the Telegraph last week.
Asked if he could confirm that
, he replied: "Absolutely. I confirmed it with the defense minister. He laughed. Even the Russians said 'We wish!'".
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as she arrives at Moscow airport (EPA)
Similarly, Moscow has not confirmed any such deal – but its relations with Argentina are certainly warming.
During her visit to the Russian capital, Mrs. Kirchner attended the opening of an exhibition about Eva Perón.
The Argentine president has already shown herself to be a friend to the Kremlin, dismissing Western criticism of its military intervention in Ukraine.
Last year, she criticized the West for alleged "double standards" over Russia's annexation of Crimea. During a visit to Paris a day after the seizure of the Ukrainian peninsula in March, she drew a parallel with Argentina's claim to the Falklands.
The
in which 99.8 per cent of the 1,517 residents who were polled voted to remain a British overseas territory.
Moscow justified its seizure of Crimea using the results of a disputed referendum which, it claimed, showed that 97 per cent of residents wanted to join Russia.
"You can't insist on the territorial integrity of Ukraine but not of Argentina," said Mrs. Kirchner, after meeting
, France's president.
"If the referendum in Crimea doesn't count when it's a few kilometers from Russia, then what about a referendum in a colony 13,000 kilometers away."
She added: "We must respect the same principles for everyone or else we live in a world without laws."
Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, later called the Argentine leader to thank her for her words.
Moscow has also highlighted the supposed similarities between the Falklands and Crimea.
"London should pause and chill out. All Western opinion polls in Crimea say the absolute majority supports reunification with Russia," Alexei Pushkov, the chairman of the foreign relations committee in the lower house of parliament, tweeted last month.
"Take notice, London. Crimea has immeasurably more grounds to be part of Russia than the Falklands to be part of Britain."
Mr. Pushkov was responding to Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, who had said that the Crimea referendum on joining Russia was a "blatant breach of Ukrainian and international law".
Mr. Putin met Mrs. Kirchner during his tour of South America in July. "We favor the principles of a multipolar world, which are equality, indivisibility and security," the Russian leader said at a dinner in his honor.
"Russia continues to support the need to find a solution to the dispute over the Malvinas Islands at direct negotiations between Great Britain and Argentina."