Russian President Vladimir V. Putin on Monday adjusted his hard-line position on the presidential election in Ukraine, saying that he would accept the choice of the Ukrainian people and would work with whichever candidate wins the second runoff election, now scheduled for Dec. 26.

Mr. Putin effectively conceded that his unequivocal choice for the Ukrainian presidency, Prime Minister Viktor F. Yanukovich, might not prevail in the repeat vote, leaving him few options but to accept a victory by the opposition candidate, Viktor A. Yushchenko.

In acknowledging that possibility, Mr. Putin eased away from statements he had made in recent weeks that had left him in the awkwardly isolated position of supporting a candidate whose campaign was marred by fraud, and whose personal history includes convictions for violent crime.

But beyond that tacit acknowledgement, Mr. Putin gave little ground. He openly grumbled about the new direction of Ukrainian political affairs. He suggested that the pro-democracy demonstrations and other events in Kiev, Ukraine's capital, which led to the Supreme Court's nullification on Dec. 3 of Mr. Yanukovich's victory, set a dangerous precedent and demonstrated the ills of a rambunctious democracy.

"If we permit in the post-Soviet space existing laws to be altered under any circumstance to fit one or another situation, this won't lead to stability, but will on the contrary destabilize this large region which is very important to the world," Mr. Putin said in televised remarks from Turkey, where he is on an official visit.

"This is what I regard as absolutely inadmissible and not constructive, and on the contrary counterproductive," he continued.

The political crisis in Ukraine, which has deadlocked the nation of 48 million for more than two weeks, has become a political challenge for Mr. Putin. It is an issue in which he has invested his personal stature, and it has exposed some of the limits of both his power and, his critics have said, his judgment.

Source: Agencies