Putin calls for 'pragmatism' in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin, making his first public comments on the Ukrainian presidential election lost by the Kremlin-favoured candidate, said today he hoped the country would move from rhetoric to pragmatism.

The reproving tone of Putin’s remarks – made after a meeting with Ukrainian parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn at Putin’s residence outside Moscow - indicated continued Russian discomfort with Western-leaning opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko.

Preliminary results from the St Stephen's Day election show that Yushchenko comfortably defeated Viktor Yanukovych, until recently Ukraine’s prime minister.

Yanukovych, who had proposed giving the Russian language official status in Ukraine, was declared the winner of a November election, which the Ukrainian Supreme Court annulled amid allegations of massive fraud, forcing the rerun in which Yushchenko prevailed.

Putin congratulated Yanukovych even before he was declared the winner, but until today had remained silent about Yushchenko’s victory.

“I really hope that once the election process in Ukraine is completed, the place of campaign rhetoric will be occupied by pragmatic views in the interests of economic development and improvement of the people’s living standards,” Putin said.

Yushchenko, although he aims to integrate Ukraine more closely with the European Union and Nato, has said his first foreign trip as president would be to meet Putin. A date for the trip is uncertain. The Ukrainian elections commission has yet to release final results that would allow Yushchenko’s inauguration, but the results are expected next week.