Ukrainian Throws in Another Wrench

The Moscow-backed loser of Ukraine’s presidential election staved off his pro-Western rival’s inauguration for another day by persuading the Supreme Court to block publication of the official result Tuesday.

Overnight, the Central Election Commission had declared that Viktor Yushchenko would be Ukraine’s next president, after more than two weeks of political limbo following the Dec. 26 vote.

But before Yushchenko can be inaugurated, the result must be published in one of the country’s two official newspapers.

Senior editors at both papers said they had been ordered by the court not to print the outcome, after former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, who lost the vote by nearly 8 percentage points, submitted another appeal.

The court has thrown out all of his appeals so far.

Yushchenko’s supporters had hoped to stage a grand inauguration this week, but the appeals now look likely to push the ceremony into the weekend or next week.

They have also held up formal congratulations from world leaders, most notably Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, with whom Yushchenko’s team is anxious to patch up ties after the Kremlin backed Yanukovich. So far Putin has said only that whoever is Ukraine’s next president should be “pragmatic.”

Yanukovich has acknowledged that he has no hope of overturning the result, but has pressed appeals at every opportunity.

“We cannot recognize the legitimacy of this election and the legitimacy of a president who was elected with violations to the constitution and rights and freedoms of millions of Ukrainians,” he said at a news conference Tuesday, his first public appearance since resigning as prime minister on New Year’s Eve.

Yanukovich was declared winner of a rigged earlier election in November, bringing hundreds of thousands of Yushchenko supporters into the streets. The Supreme Court overturned that vote, paving the way for the Dec. 26 vote Yushchenko won.