A Ukrainian court has suspended the result of the recent presidential election, following a challenge by losing candidate Yulia Tymoshenko.
Mrs Tymoshenko, the Prime Minister, made the appeal on Tuesday, claiming the result was rigged. International monitors deemed the vote free and fair.
The court says the result should be suspended while it considers the evidence she has submitted.
The winner, Viktor Yanukovych, is due to be inaugurated on 25 February.
The supreme administrative court ruling concerns the Ukrainian Central Electoral Commission's declaration on Sunday that Mr Yanukovych had won the vote.
The results showed him to have beaten Mrs Tymoshenko by a margin of 3.48%.
A win by the pro-Russian Yanukovych would be a real setback for the West and a gain for Putin. But on the other hand, as I've mentioned, before Ukraine can enter NATO it would be good if the people of Ukraine settled on a course of West or East. It would be bad to have had Ukraine in NATO already only to have them possibly leave (or worse, have pro-Russian elements in a position to pass information to Moscow).
It is bad if this election goes to Yanukovych, but as long as it isn't the last election it won't be a disaster. As long as Ukrainians can practice real democracy, they could reverse course the next time.
But that won't be clear until long after this election is resolved.
