EU tells Putin it won't accept Ukraine result: Court blocks inauguration
THE HAGUE, Nov 25: The European Union and Russia locked horns over the elections in Ukraine at an EU-Russia summit here on Thursday with Brussels stressing it would not accept the poll results
while Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted that the results were "absolutely clear".
In the Ukrainian capital Kiev, the supreme court ordered that publication of the official presidential election results be stopped until an appeal lodged by the opposition was examined.
At the Hague summit, both parties dug in their heels on Ukraine's presidential election, which saw Russia-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich named the winner over his western-leaning rival amid claims of irregularities.
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said that the EU does not accept the results of the elections. "The election did not meet the international standards. Therefore the EU is not able to accept the results," Mr Balkenende told a press conference.
Mr Putin in turn insisted that the results of the elections were clear. "From my perspective, all issues should be addressed within the framework of the constitution and legislation. All claims should go to the courts," he said at a press conference after the summit.
The Kremlin has already said that the EU's call for a review of the poll was pushing the Ukrainian opposition to "illegal, violent actions". Tens of thousands of demonstrators have held protests in Ukraine for the last four days and the opposition has called for a campaign of civil disobedience in support of its leader Viktor Yushchenko.
"We have no moral right to push a major European state into mass mayhem," Putin said in a barely veiled dig at the EU position. Before setting off for The Hague, Mr Putin congratulated Mr Yanukovich on his victory, saying that the people of Ukraine had made their choice.
The only thing Mr Putin and the EU, represented by Mr Balkenende, European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, could agree on regarding Ukraine was that "a peaceful approach" should be taken.
After the EU-Russia summit, Mr Balkenende called outgoing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma to again stress the need for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
The crisis in Ukraine completely overshadowed the summit, which was meant to deal with the four so-called "common spaces" meant to make up the framework of bilateral relations until 2007.
COURT ADMITS APPEAL: Ukraine's highest court on Thursday blocked the inauguration of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich as president, and agreed to examine a complaint by his liberal challenger that the election had been rigged.
The supreme court rejected the official publication of results that showed the Moscow-backed Yanukovich had beaten Viktor Yushchenko in a run-off election on Sunday.
By its ruling, the Supreme Court gave a new lease of life to the drive by the West-leaning Yushchenko and the tens of thousands of his supporters on the streets to prove he was cheated out of the election. Mr Yushchenko immediately hailed the ruling as a victory. A president cannot be sworn in without the result being published in official government documents.
MINISTER RESIGNS: Ukraine's Deputy Economy Minister Oleh Haiduk resigned on Thursday, citing disagreements with authorities, the first resignation by a senior government official after the disputed election.
"When the European community does not recognize the results of the election, what kind of European intergration we can speak of?" he told the Fifth television channel. "This is my position as a citizen. I wrote a resignation letter yesterday. And I hereby confirm it now." -AFP/Reuters
