Medvedev Blames Ukraine for Anti-Russian Course

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday Russia will delay sending a new ambassador to Ukraine due to Kiev's anti-Russia course.

Photo: Medvedev Blames Ukraine for Anti-Russian Course

Medvedev Blames Ukraine for Anti-Russian Course

"I would like to inform you that taking into account the anti-Russian course of the Ukrainian leadership, I have made the decision to postpone sending our new ambassador to Ukraine," Medvedev said in a letter to his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko.

The Russian president described the current state of Russia-Ukraine relations as "crisis-ridden without an exaggeration," Xinhua reports.

In a letter to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko released by the Kremlin Tuesday, Medvedev cites complaints ranging from Yushchenko's push to make Ukraine a NATO member to his support of an Orthodox church outside Moscow's control.

Medvedev also indicates he wants Yushchenko to lose January's presidential election. "I hope that the new leadership will be ready for a breakthrough," he says in his video blog on the Kremlin Web site, eTaiwan News reports.

Meanwhile, Yushchenko, who advocates closer ties with the U.S. and Europe, trails Russian-backed former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and current premier Yulia Timoshenko, according to opinion polls. Yushchenko and Timoshenko led the so-called Orange Revolution that kept Yanukovych from gaining the presidency in 2004, Bloomberg reports.