KIEV, Aug. 13 – President Viktor Yushchenko on Thursday said he was “very disappointed” by an “unfriendly” letter from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and suggested holding a summit to discuss bilateral problems.

Yushchenko said over the past 12 months he had three times called for holding the summit, but this initiative had been repeatedly rejected by the Russian president, suspending a dialog between the two.

“I hope that this time around your reaction to this will be constructive,” Yushchenko said in a statement.

The statement is a reaction to Medvedev’s letter on Tuesday in which he had accused Yushchenko of sticking to “anti-Russian” policy and undermining bilateral relations between Kiev and Moscow.

Medvedev also announced he will postpone indefinitely the arrival of Russia’s new ambassador in Ukraine, marking the worst escalation of tensions between the two countries since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

As an example of the “anti-Russian” policy, Medvedev said that Ukraine had diplomatically supported Georgia during its military clash with Russia in August 2008, and the fact that Kiev had continued to sell weapons to Tbilisi.

Medvedev also complained that Ukraine has been pushing for joining NATO despite Moscow’s opposition and has been planning to upgrade its natural gas pipelines jointly with the European Union.

In the letter, Medvedev referred to the Ukrainian gas pipeline system, which moves a bulk of Russian natural gas to the European Union, as “our joint” gas transportation system built back during the Soviet era.

Yushchenko’s statement, written in a firm but calm language, insisted that Ukraine has continued to respect Russia as a partner in the 1997 Friendship Treaty.

He said Ukraine’s support for Georgia’s territorial integrity is by “practically all countries of the world,” while selling weapons to Tbilisi is not under any international embargo or restriction.

Yushchenko also defended the course for accession to NATO, stressing that Ukraine, as a sovereign state, has the right to choose alliances for national security. “And Russia must respect it,” Yushchenko said.

He said that joining NATO will not pose any military threat to Russia as Ukraine will not allow foreign troops stationing on its territory.

However, Yushchenko emphasized that Ukraine will continue to respect the agreement with Russia, according to which it can base its Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol through 2017.

The tone of Yushchenko’s statement is lower compared with the response by Yushchenko’s party, Our Ukraine, which said that Moscow has been “zombying” the Russians to “incite the anti-Ukrainian sentiment.”

Vira Ulianchenko, the head of the party and also Yushchenko’s chief of staff, said that independent opinion polls show that most of Russians consider Ukraine “unfriendly” state, while most of Ukrainians consider Russia a “friendly” state.

Some 93% of Ukrainian respondents polled in March said they see Russia as a friendly state, up from 88% in March 2008, according to the poll by Levada Center and the Kiev International Institute of Sociology.

But 56% of Russian respondents polled in March said they consider Ukraine an “unfriendly” state, up from 30% a year earlier, according to the polls. Only Georgia has ranked even worse among the Russians.

Meanwhile, analysts said that Medvedev’s strong letter is aimed at influencing mood of Ukrainian voters and key candidates ahead of the next presidential election in January 2010.

The assertive tone used by Medvedev suggests that the scenario of pro-Russian and pro-Western candidate may be increasingly likely at the election, and that may tilt voter balance unexpectedly, analysts said.

Yushchenko, being a pro-Western opposition candidate in November 2004, squared off against then Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russian figure, and defeated him in the third round of voting in December 2004.

The third round was ordered by the Supreme Court after evidence that Yanukovych campaign, backed by his government and by Moscow, had worked hard to falsify the election in the second round.

The election fraud triggered the Orange Revolution, a popular uprising against election fraud, which had catapulted Yushchenko to the victory. (tl/ez)