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Russian parliament to raise issue of Ukraine's 'unfriendly' policies

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Russia's lower house of parliament is to bring to the attention of the country's leadership Ukraine's 'unfriendly' policies in a statement on Wednesday.
MOSCOW, June 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's lower house of parliament is to bring to the attention of the country's leadership Ukraine's 'unfriendly' policies in a statement on Wednesday.

In the statement, the State Duma lawmakers will raise the issue of the two countries' stormy relations and the fulfillment of the bilateral Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership signed in 1997.

"We will bring to the attention of our country's leadership that the actions of the Ukrainian authorities, in particular, the accelerated steps toward joining the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP), are unfriendly in regard to Russia," the head of the State Duma committee on CIS affairs, Alexei Ostrovsky said.

At a summit in Bucharest in April, NATO members decided to postpone offering Ukraine, along with Georgia, membership of MAP, but promised to review the decision in December. The ex-Soviet republics had received strong U.S. backing for their bids.

The Russian lawmaker said if Kiev took new steps toward joining the alliance at the next NATO summit then Ukraine would be responsible for bringing into question the nature and purpose of the Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership treaty.

The Kremlin threatened in February to target missiles at Ukraine if Kiev joins NATO and allows Western military facilities on its territory.

Ostrovsky also expressed concerns over recent attempts by the Ukrainian leadership to expel Russia's Black Sea fleet from Sevastopol, in the Crimea, before the agreement on the base expires in 2017.

The decision by Russian lawmakers to address Russian-Ukrainian relations comes shortly after Ukraine's ex-foreign minister, Konstyantyn Gryshchenko, was appointed ambassador to Russia.

The appointment of Gryshchenko, who served in the government of the former pro-Russian premier, Viktor Yanukovych, raised hopes that relations between the two former Soviet republics would improve.

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