KIEV, Aug. 11 – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday accused President Viktor Yushchenko of “anti-Russian” policy and warned that Moscow in response will postpone arrival of its new ambassador in Ukraine until bilateral relations improve.

Medvedev’s unusually strongly worded statement was posted on the Kremlin’s Website. It was also released as a video apparently recorded at the Russian presidential residence in Sochi with Medvedev, dressed in a black shirt and a black jacket, standing on the balcony, overlooking the Black Sea with several Russian battleships on the background.

“Problems in bilateral cooperation of course existed before,” Medvedev said. “But what we see during your presidency cannot be interpreted other then the departure of the Ukrainian party from the principles of friendship and partnership with Russia stipulated in the 1997 Friendship Treaty.”

“I wrote to you about this in November of last year, but the situation had not been improving, it had been worsening,” Medvedev said, blaming Yushchenko for a series of “anti-Russians events.”

Among those, Medevdev mentioned Ukraine’s exports of weapons to Georgia ahead of the Russian-Georgian war in August 2008, and also Kiev’s aspirations to join NATO, which Moscow views as a military threat.

Medvedev also lashed out at Ukraine’s plans of jointly with the European Union to upgrade Ukrainian natural gas pipelines that carry most of Russian gas exports to markets in Europe. Moscow believes the plan is aimed against Russian interests.

“Taking into account the anti-Russian course of the Ukrainian leadership, I have approved the decision to postpone the arrival of our new ambassador in Ukraine,” Medvedev said. “Concrete terms [of the arrival] will be approved later, taking into account the real development of the Russian-Ukrainian relations.”

The harsh tone of the statement, coupled with the decision to postpone the arrival of the ambassador, signals a dramatic worsening in relations between the two biggest countries in Eastern Europe.

It comes six months before the next presidential election in Ukraine that will be crucial in defining the country’s foreign policy during the next five years. By making the statement now, Moscow seeks to have an influence and may try to promote a pro-Russian candidate, analysts said.

Medvedev said: “In Russia they believe that the new leadership of Ukraine will be ready to build bilateral relations reflecting true aspirations of our nations and interests of strengthening the European security.”

Yushchenko did not comment on Medvedev’s statement Tuesday, but his office has been working on the response, according to Iryna Vannikova, Yushchenko’s press secretary.

Volodymyr Khandohiy, the acting Ukrainian foreign minister, said postponing the arrival of the Russian ambassador may be counterproductive and not helping to improve bilateral relations.

“I believe that the presence of diplomats, especially of ambassadors, is better then their absence,” Khandihiy said, adding that the decision to postpone the ambassador was “disappointing.”

Sergei Prikhodko, Medvedev’s chief foreign policy advisor, explained that the decision to postpone the arrival of the ambassador does not mean “breaking” or “suspending” diplomatic relations with Ukraine.

“What we’re talking about is expressing deep concerns of the Russian leadership and the citizens of our country with conditions and the level of Russian-Ukrainian relations,” Prikhodko said, according to Interfax. (tl/ez)