Freedom House reiterated Russia recognized non-free country.

The human rights organization Freedom House has published an annual report on the state of freedom in the world. " The authors of the study, as in previous years, brought Russia to the category of "non-free countries," noting that in Russia there is a tendency to worsen the situation. Among the countries of the former Soviet Union in the category of "non-free, except for Russia, had only Azerbaijan, Belarus, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Freedom House appreciates the country's two options - "the political rights and civil liberties," ratings on semiballnoy scale. The lower the score, the better, according to the authors of the study, the state of freedom in the country. Russia, a report issued in January 2009, received 6 points for the "political rights" and 5 points for the "civil liberties".

In last year's study of Russia earned the same assessment, but the report notes that the situation with the rights and freedoms in Russia in 2008 has worsened. The negative trend, they believe, will continue in 2009. Russia under the leadership of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made a number of steps towards the authoritarian regime, the report says. These steps Freedom House considers "aggression in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as well as pressure on the opposition forces and independent media. The report should be reminded that the election of the President of the Russian Federation and the deputies of the Duma was far from democratic standards.

In the world as a whole, concludes Freedom House, the situation with respect for political rights and civil liberties in 2008, has deteriorated. The category of "free" the authors of the study identified 89 countries, "partly free" - 62, as "non-free" - 42. In 2007, the organization Freedom House believed that there are 90 free countries, 60 partly free.

Russian human rights activists, which the newspaper Kommersant asked to comment on the report, opinions are divided. Director of the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights Alexander Brod, a member of the Public Chamber, said that Freedom House, in preparing the report uses a biased data obtained from biased sources. Objective source of information, according to Brod, we can consider the reports of the Public Chamber on Human Rights. At the same time, the head of Research Center for Human Rights, Lyubov Vinogradova called assessments given Russia Freedom House, is absolutely fair.