The Foreign Ministry said, "The world community highly assessed the degree of compliance of last year's Ukrainian presidential elections with the democratic standards."
"In particular, this assessment was given by states and most influential international organizations, for which the supremacy of law and democratic norms are the highest possible values of civil society," the ministry said.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said the Ukrainian Supreme Court, on December 3, 2004, during an open court session, concluded that "electoral law principles, and election process principles were violated" and it was impossible to "verify the results of declaration of will" in the second round of elections and ruled to revote the second round.
"It was the Ukrainian Supreme Court that on January 20, 2005 ruled that the revote had taken place in compliance with the Constitution and laws of Ukraine," the ministry said.
"We wouldn't like to believe that a high representative of the state which neighbors on us and is our strategic partner can consider those flagrant violations that took place during the second round of the presidential elections in Ukraine, as well as foreign interference with the election process, a manifestation of democracy and a form of 'constitutional change of power in the state,'" said the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
Igor Ivanov told Strategia Rossii, a magazine, that he believed that "power was changed undemocratically" in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.
"If we imagine, for a second, something similar in Western European countries, I strongly doubt western democracy would agree with such a practice of coming to power," said the Russian Security Council secretary.
However, in his words, "there are realia, and Russia as a state has to take them into account," which means maintaining relations in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan with those who had taken upon them the responsibility for political processes in their countries.
