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

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. RIA Novosti reports.

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.