Group says Russia now at 'not free' status

US. Pot. Kettle. Black.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RUSSIA_DEMOCRACY_SURVEY?SITE=TXSAE&SECTION=INTERNATIONAL&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


MOSCOW (AP) -- A U.S.-based organization that tracks the progress of political rights and civil liberties across the world said Monday that Russia had fallen to the status of "not free" - far behind the democratic nations Moscow sees as its peers.

"Russia's step backward into the 'Not Free' category is the culmination of a growing trend under President Vladimir Putin to concentrate political authority, harass and intimidate the media, and politicize the country's law-enforcement system," Freedom House Executive Director Jennifer Windsor said in a statement.

"These moves mark a dangerous and disturbing drift toward authoritarianism in Russia, made more worrisome by President Putin's recent heavy-handed meddling in political developments in neighboring countries, such as Ukraine," the statement said.

Freedom House said that on balance, the world saw increased freedom in 2004: 26 countries showed gains while 11 showed decline. Of the world's 192 countries, it judged 46 percent free, 26 percent not free, and the rest partly free. Eight rated as the most repressive: Burma, Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Turkmenistan.

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Cause you know, US didn't have heavy-handed meddling in Ukraine.

When does the US launch an attack to bring democracy to Russia and to free the Russian people?

And, let's not forget that Russia also has WMD's that are pointed at the United States.
This means that Russia meets all of the prerequisites for the US to launch a unilateral attack on it's military infrastructure.

provides the "welcome" statement on the 2003 Freedom House Report. Hahahahaahahahaha

I don't know how they can say all this with a straight face anymore. Here is an example of how non-partisan they are:

"The Rights Way
The Republic of Fear becomes the Republic of Hope
National Review Online, March 19, 2004
by Nina Shea

Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq was the "Republic of Fear," to borrow the title of the seminal human-rights critique by Iraqi dissident and intellectual Kanan Makiya. One year later, it has become the "Republic of Hope."
...

Nina Shea is the director of Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom and serves as a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom."

It works so well here...:eyes:

edited to add quotation marks...

is Putin's soul that chimperor could see.

An Open Letter to the Heads of State and Government
Of the European Union and NATO
September 28, 2004

As citizens of the Euro-Atlantic community of democracies, we wish to express our sympathy and solidarity with the people of the Russian Federation in their struggle against terrorism. The mass murderers who seized School No. 1 in Beslan committed a heinous act of terrorism for which there can be no rationale or excuse. While other mass murderers have killed children and unarmed civilians, the calculated targeting of so many innocent children at school is an unprecedented act of barbarism that violates the values and norms of our community and which all civilized nations must condemn.

At the same time, we are deeply concerned that these tragic events are being used to further undermine democracy in Russia. Russia's democratic institutions have always been weak and fragile. Since becoming President in January 2000, Vladimir Putin has made them even weaker. He has systematically undercut the freedom and independence of the press, destroyed the checks and balances in the Russian federal system, arbitrarily imprisoned both real and imagined political rivals, removed legitimate candidates from electoral ballots, harassed and arrested NGO leaders, and weakened Russia's political parties. In the wake of the horrific crime in Beslan, President Putin has announced plans to further centralize power and to push through measures that will take Russia a step closer to authoritarian regime.

We are also worried about the deteriorating conduct of Russia in its foreign relations. President Putin's foreign policy is increasingly marked by a threatening attitude towards Russia's neighbors and Europe's energy security, the return of rhetoric of militarism and empire, and by a refusal to comply with Russia's international treaty obligations. In all aspects of Russian political life, the instruments of state power appear to be being rebuilt and the dominance of the security services to grow. We believe that this conduct cannot be accepted as the foundation of a true partnership between Russia and the democracies of NATO and the European Union.

These moves are only the latest evidence that the present Russian leadership is breaking away from the core democratic values of the Euro-Atlantic community. All too often in the past, the West has remained silent and restrained its criticism in the belief that President Putin's steps in the wrong direction were temporary and the hope that Russia would soon return to a democratic and pro-Western path. Western leaders continue to embrace President Putin in the face of growing evidence that the country is moving in the wrong direction and that his strategy for fighting terrorism is producing less and less freedom. We firmly believe dictatorship will not and cannot be the answer to Russia's problems and the very real threats it faces.

The leaders of the West must recognize that our current strategy towards Russia is failing. Our policies have failed to contribute to the democratic Russia we wished for and the people of this great country deserve after all the suffering they have endured. It is time for us to rethink how and to what extent we engage with Putin's Russia and to put ourselves unambiguously on the side of democratic forces in Russia. At this critical time in history when the West is pushing for democratic change around the world, including in the broader Middle East, it is imperative that we do not look the other way in assessing Moscow's behaviour or create a double standard for democracy in the countries which lie to Europe's East. We must speak the truth about what is happening in Russia. We owe it to the victims of Beslan and the tens of thousands of Russian democrats who are still fighting to preserve democracy and human freedom in their country.




Urban Ahlin Madeleine K. Albright Giuliano Amato

Uzi Arad Timothy Garton Ash Anders Aslund

Ronald D. Asmus Rafael L. Bardaji Wladyslaw Bartoszewski

Arnold Beichman Jeff Bergner Joseph R. Biden

Carl Bildt Max Boot Ellen Bork

Pascal Bruckner Mark Brzezinski Reinhard Buetikofer

Janusz Bugajski Michael Butler Martin Butora

Daniele Capezzone Per Carlsen Gunilla Carlsson

Ivo Daalder Massimo D'Alema Pavol Demes

Larry Diamond Peter Dimitrov Thomas Donnelly

Nicholas Eberstadt Uffe Elleman-Jensen Helga Flores Trejo

Francis Fukuyama Jeffrey Gedmin Bronislaw Geremek

Carl Gershmann Marc Ginsberg Andre Glucksmann

Phil Gordon Karl-Theodor von und zu Guttenberg

Istvan Gyarmati Pierre Hassner Vaclav Havel

Richard C. Holbrooke Toomas Ilves Bruce Jackson

Donald Kagan Robert Kagan Craig Kennedy

Penn Kemble Glenys Kinnock Bernard Kouchner

Jerzy Kozminski Ivan Krastev William Kristol

Girts Valdis Kristovskis Ludger Kuehnhardt Mart Laar

Vytautas Landsbergis Stephen Larrabee

Mark Leonard Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger

Tod Lindberg Tom Malinowski

Will Marshall Margarita Mathiopoulos

Clifford May John McCain Michael McFaul

Matteo Mecacci Mark Medish Thomas O. Melia

Sarah E. Mendelson Michael Mertes Ilir Meta

Adam Michnik Richard Morningstar Joshua Muravchik

Klaus Naumann Dietmar Nietan James O'Brien

Janusz Onyszkiewicz Cem Ozdemir Can Paker

Mark Palmer Martin Peretz Friedbert Pflueger

Danielle Pletka Florentino Portero Samantha Ravich

Janusz Reiter Alex Rondos Jim Rosapepe

Jacques Rupnik Eberhard Sandschneider

Randy Scheunemann Christian Schmidt

Gary Schmitt Simon Serfaty Stephen Sestanovich

Radek Sikorski Stefano Silvestri Martin Simecka

Gary Smith Abraham Sofaer James Steinberg

Gary Titley Ivan Vejvoda Sasha Vondra

Celeste Wallander Ruth Wedgood Richard Weitz

Kenneth Weinstein Jennifer Windsor R. James Woolsey

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Replace Russian with US, Putin with Bush and the letter is even better.

http://www.newamericancentury.org/russia-20040928.htm

The return of the Cold War.