The report says that in many other countries in Eurasia, including Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, governments "took steps to shore up their power amid economic and political uncertainty." "So it is a particular concern in those countries on Russia’s eastern fringe and also in the Balkans that we may start to see even more reversals." "This year, we are especially concerned because it is looking like the European Union and the United States both may be more concerned about internal issues than serving as an example to other countries or helping to support their democracies," says Repucci. The report says countries such as Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova "struggled to build on fragile democratic gains of recent years" but warns their progress could be at risk if the West cut back on support. Looking at Eurasia as a whole, Freedom House says that 2016 showed the region "divided between a more democratic-oriented fringe and a core of rigid autocracies." "It was happening last year with the migrant crisis in Europe, but we are seeing it as a larger trend and also becoming something that is acceptable, that it's OK for mainstream politicians to say that they don't believe that these people should be in the country, that they believe that these people should be treated differently." "One of the things that we are most concerned about is the treatment of minority populations," Repucci says. The report argues that major democracies "are mired in anxiety and indecision after events such as Britain’s vote to leave the European Union" as well as "gains by xenophobic nationalist parties elsewhere in Europe, and the U.S. "We are familiar with seeing increased repression in dictatorships, the declines in freedom in the more free countries of the world have started to make their impact as well on the overall decline of freedom," says Repucci. Meanwhile, Freedom House says growing populist and nationalist camps in democratic states are also contributing to the general decline of freedoms that the group reports worldwide. "This year, we were especially concerned with control over parliamentary and regional elections and the basic total extinction of a liberal opposition in the legislature, and we are also concerned about NGOs that Russia considers to be 'foreign agents' or undesirables and through that is able to basically silence NGOs that have any kind of independent voice in the country." "Russia already has a very repressive environment, but somehow it still seems to get worse each year," says Sarah Repucci, a spokesman for Freedom House in New York. "Russia, in stunning displays of hubris and hostility, interfered in the political processes of the United States and other democracies, escalated its military support for the Assad dictatorship in Syria, and solidified its illegal occupation of Ukrainian territory," the report says.Īt the same time, the report says, Moscow further reduced the space for public dissent and political opposition at home. One of the most notable offenders in 2016, according to Freedom House, was Russia. The annual survey assessed 195 countries in total. The group says in its Freedom in the World 2017 report that 67 countries suffered net declines in political rights and civil liberties last year, almost twice as many as the 36 states that registered net improvements. U.S.-based liberty-and-democracy watchdog Freedom House warns that civil liberties came increasingly under threat in 2016 as authoritarian powers gained strength in many parts of the world and "populist and nationalist forces" rose in democratic states.
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