You're reading: Freedom House: Ukraine suffers steepest decline in democracy of any major nation in last two years

Ukraine has regressed to the Leonid Kuchma days, a decade associated more with authoritarianism, lawlessness, crony capitalism and corruption than with democracy.

Ukraine has regressed to the Leonid Kuchma days, a decade associated more with authoritarianism, lawlessness, crony capitalism and corruption than with democracy.

That is the latest assessment of U.S.-based Freedom House, a democracy and human rights watchdog which on Jan. 19 made public results of its annual Freedom in the World report.

Ukraine, according to Freedom House, suffered the deepest regression in democracy of any major country during the past two years. It is the second consecutive year that Freedom House marked a decline in political rights and civil liberties in Ukraine.

Once considered a beacon of democratic hope among mostly autocratic former Soviet republics, Ukraine in 2011 firmly anchored itself in the “partly-free” category for the second year, the freedom watchdog reported.

“Ukraine suffered a major decline due to President Viktor Yanukovych’s moves to crush the political opposition through a variety of anti-democratic tactics, including the prosecution of opposition political leader and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko,” Freedom House said.

Ukraine was rated as “free” for the years 2005-2009, which included ex-President Viktor Yushchenko’s term, despite the near-paralysis of government because of incessant fighting between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko.

The annual report said Ukraine’s significant drop from 2010, when it fell into the “partly free” category of nations, is due to the politicized use of courts

The annual report said Ukraine’s significant drop from 2010, when it fell into the “partly free” category of nations, is due to the politicized use of courts, a crackdown on media and the use of police force to break up demonstrations.

Presidential adviser Hanna Herman didn’t return two Kyiv Post phone calls for comment. In January 2011, she called the annual Freedom House report “biased” on 5 Channel TV.

The nation, with a declining population of nearly 46 million people, now has the same score as it did in 2004, during Kuchma’s last full year as president. His authoritarian rule dating back to 1994 was also marked by political repression and, especially in the early years, wild form of “gangster capitalism” as violence broke out over the fight for previously Soviet state assets.

While the report says Ukraine’s backsliding is a danger sign for new democracies, it is part of a larger disturbing trend: 12 countries showed gains for the past year while 26 countries regressed.

The level of freedom fell in energy-rich Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia “despite popular demands for reform and warning signs from the Middle East.”

Russia witnessed the largest showing of protesters taking to the streets since the fall of the Soviet Union after deeply flawed December parliamentary elections and public resentment over Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s announcement to run for president again.

Kazakhstan suffered decline because of restrictions on religious freedom and a violent crackdown on labor protests by oil workers. “As the 20th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s disintegration was marked at year’s end, most Eurasian countries were still subject to autocratic rule of one variant or another,” the report noted.

The report evoked the “president-for-life” phenomenon usually associated with the Middle East to describe the long-term leaders in places like, Russia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Ukraine runs the risk of falling into this category: “The government revised the electoral law to improve its chances in the 2012 parliamentary elections, while rampant corruption gave incumbents a strong incentive to retain power and avoid possible prosecution by their successors.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].