FINROSFORUM

FINROSFORUM

FINROSFORUM  //  The Finnish-Russian Civic Forum strives to promote cooperation between the peoples of Finland and Russia by supporting civic initiatives for democracy, human rights, and freedom of speech.

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Jun 30 / 1:10am

Nations in Transit 2010: Russia Declining

by Mikael Storsjö

The prestigious watchdog Freedom House published on Tuesday the 14th edition of the study Nations in Transit, which is a comparative study of democratic development in 29 countries from Central Europe to Eurasia. The overarching conclusion is that 2009 was a year of broad, cross-regional pressures on democratic developments: scores declined for 14 of the 29 countries. Over the past five years, eight of the ten new EU states have undergone declines in their overall democracy scores.

However, with the grave situation for defenders of human rights and democracy growing worse in 2009, Nations in Transit findings show that over the past decade, Russia [pdf] has undergone the largest decline of any country in the study. In terms of population, nearly 80 percent of residents of the former Soviet Union - some 221 million people - still live in entrenched authoritarian settings where they are deprived of basic political rights.

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Jan 13 / 7:25pm

The Putin Effect: Erosion of Freedom

by Kerkko Paananen

Freedom House lists Russia as "not free" in its annual report, Global Erosion of Freedom 2009. The report, which looks at the freedom of the political system and the civic society around the world, notes that the situation in Russia worsened.

Arch Puddington, Freedom House's director of research and one of the authors of the report, said the steady erosion of political rights and civil liberties in Russia was a consequence of what he called the "Putin effect."

"We see a decline in political conditions in a number of countries in the Russian neighborhood, and we see that as having been in part driven by Putin's diplomacy." Puddington said most of the countries in the region are following the Russian model.

"Countries like Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are strongly influenced by Russia; they have political systems that are quite similar to Russia's. We will see Russia influencing the democratic direction of the whole region for decades to come," Puddington said.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Report_Democratic_Decline_Continues_Across_Former_Soviet_States_/1927675.html

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