In 2006 Ukraine remained “free” in the area of political rights and civil liberties

This is the conclusion in the new report issued by the international human rights organization Freedom House. Ukraine remains the only country of the former Soviet Union (besides the Baltic Republics which the report does not seem to regard as such) which qualifies as “free”, while Georgia receives a “Partly Free” rating. “Both Ukraine and Georgia succeeded in further consolidating some of the reforms that had been instituted after their respective democratic revolutions. Ukrainian democracy, however, was somewhat tarnished by continuing corruption and political stalemate that occurred during the protracted process of establishing a governing coalition after parliamentary elections that failed to produce a clear winner.” There was nothing else cheering to say about the former Soviet Union. “Russia continued to serve as a model for authoritarian-minded leaders in the region and elsewhere, and the country experienced a modest decline as a result of its crackdown on non-governmental organizations. Modest declines were also noted in Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan.” The worst ratings were received by Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, North Korea, Cuba and Libya. Among European countries the least free country was considered to be Belarus. The report published on 17 January 2007 is available at: http://freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=70&release=457