"I don't trust them," he said of the judges who heard Yushchenko's appeal.
"Yanukovych obviously did not consult any lawyers," said Sergei Koziakov, a lawyer with a leading Kiev firm. "This is all emotion. The procedural codes of Ukraine do not allow such cases to be heard by the entire Supreme Court."
A supporter of Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko, holding a Polish flag, shouts at a rally in Kiev. Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski was among the leaders to congratulate Yushchenko.
(Alexander Zemlianichenko -- AP)
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Yanukovych said he would not call on his supporters to take to the streets and would act within the law. There were signs Monday that his supporters did not have the energy for the kind of popular revolution that followed the Nov. 21 vote. Yanukovych's headquarters canceled a rally it had planned for his home town, Donetsk, on Monday. Outside his headquarters in Kiev, there was only a small group of supporters.
One of Yanukovych's supporters, Transport Minister Heorhiy Kirpa, was found dead in his house from a gunshot wound Monday, a spokesman for the nation's railways said, according to the Associated Press. Local media speculated that Kirpa's death was a suicide, but officials did not confirm that.
"The holding of free and fair elections opens the way toward strengthened cooperation with Ukraine," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a statement from Brussels. The commission is the executive arm of the European Union. "It is now important that the democratic process can follow its course unhindered." Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski also extended his congratulations to Yushchenko.
But other leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had been quick to congratulate Yanukovych after the Nov. 21 vote, held back from expressing any judgment.
Russian election observers challenged the validity of the vote, citing what they said were numerous violations. But the chairman of Russia's Central Elections Commission, Alexander Veshnyakov, said any shortcomings would not change the result.
"Although observers, including those from Russia, have noted that the elections there were not entirely faultless and were accompanied by violations, I think that these remarks have not yet called into question the general outcome," he told reporters in Moscow.
The Bush administration urged Russia to join with the United States in helping Ukraine, the Associated Press reported. "Let's all join together now and see what we can do," Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said at a State Department news conference. Setting aside the vigorous backing that Putin gave Yanukovych, Powell said, "I don't expect this to be a blot on U.S-Russian relations."
