MOSCOW, November 7 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has linked Ukrainian problems with payment for Russian gas deliveries to the country's presidential polls, due to take place in January.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in late October that his Ukrainian counterpart, Yulia Tymoshenko, had told him by telephone that President Viktor Yushchenko was blocking payments for Russian gas supplies.
However, Tymoshenko said on Friday that despite difficulties, Ukraine's Naftogaz had paid Gazprom in full for Russian gas deliveries in October.
"In my view this is linked to the presidential campaign going on in Ukraine," Medvedev told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, adding that opposing forces were "hurting each other with the aim of scoring political points."
Opinion polls point to Tymoshenko, an ally-turned-rival to the current president, as a leading contender in the elections. Yushchenko, who came to power after the 2004 Orange Revolution, is struggling to reach double figures.
Besides gas, relations between Russia and Ukraine have been fraught in recent years over a number of issues, including Ukraine's NATO bid and Russian claims that Kiev supplied weapons to Georgia before the August 2008 war with Georgia.
Medvedev, who in August blamed Yushchenko for worsening relations between Moscow and Kiev, also told the magazine that he would like to see a Ukrainian president with a "more pragmatic approach" to ties with Russia.
"I wish our Ukrainian friends a speedy end to instability. Then it will be simpler for everyone - including Russia and Europe - to work with them," he added.
