Freedom House: Democracy index drops in Russia
Since the beginning of Russian aggression in Ukraine, the indicator of democracy in the Russian Federation has suffered the biggest drop during the entire period of the study and has caught up with that of Belarus. This is stated in the report “Transit countries” international non-governmental organization Freedom House, published on Tuesday, May 30.
Over the year, the indicator of democracy in Russia decreased from 1.32 to 1.11 points on a seven-point scale, indicates the specialized project Re: Russia. The drop occurred in five of the seven indicators: civil society, independent media, local government, judicial independence and corruption. State administration and electoral processes remained unchanged.
According to estimates by Freedom House, Russia is only 2% democratized and belongs to the category of consolidated authoritarian regimes. The same group included Belarus, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan (democratized at 1%), Turkmenistan (0% democratic), as well as Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (11%, 5% and 4%).
The democratic situation is deteriorating in all post-Soviet countries and the states of the former socialist bloc for the 19th consecutive year. In 2022, the gap between democracies and autocracies in the region widened. In the countries of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, the indicators remained almost unchanged, while in the post-Soviet countries they decreased by 0.7 points, point out experts from Re: Russia.
Ukraine managed to maintain democracy at the level of 3.36 points: now it is democratized by 39% and belongs to the category of transit regimes. The best indicator of democracy – six points – in Estonia. Almost the same number in Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, they are included in the category of consolidated democracies.
Source: DW
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