MOSCOW, August 1 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian official has called the United States' creation of a post responsible for preparing for a change of power in Cuba a resurgence of "imperialist big-stick" policy and a display of "extreme hostility" to Cuba.

"This is another anti-Cuban gesture and a demonstration by U.S. authorities of their extreme hostility to their island neighbor, the victim of almost 50 years of unjust trade sanctions," said Karen Khachaturov, the head of the Russian Committee for Cooperation with Latin America.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week announced the creation of a position for a "Cuba Transition Coordinator". Caleb McCarry, a member of the U.S. House Committee on International Relations for the past eight years, was appointed to the post.

"The public declaration of preparations for a change of power in Cuba is a display of open interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state and a resurgence of imperialist big-stick policy and gunboat diplomacy," Khachaturov said in a statement.