Russian leader says Ukraine endangering gas supply

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has accused Ukraine of endangering European gas supplies, and threatened to delay sending a new Russian ambassador until relations with its neighbor improve.

In a letter to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko released Tuesday by the Kremlin, Medvedev also criticizes Yushchenko’s push to make Ukraine a NATO member and his support for an Orthodox church outside Moscow’s control.
Russia and Ukraine have had troubled relations for years, but the new criticism was unusual for its strong language and its length.

Ukraine is due to hold presidential elections in five months, and Medvedev suggested Russia would not be backing pro-Western Yushchenko for re-election.

Russia-Ukraine relations “will resume on a fundamentally different level — that of strategic partnership — and this moment will not be long in coming,” Medvedev said in a “video blog” posted on the Kremlin Web site in which he comments on the letter to Yushchenko. “I hope that the new leadership of Ukraine will be ready for the breakthrough.”

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