Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Report Says Decline In Freedom Continues Across Former Soviet Union

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

There is only one region in the world where political rights and civil liberties have been in continuous decline since 2001 — the wide swath of territory made up of countries of the former Soviet Union, with the exception of the Baltic states.

That’s according to Arch Puddington and Christopher Walker, the principal authors of the latest “Freedom in The World” report compiled annually by the U.S.-based rights watchdog Freedom House. The authors say there is no general explanation for the region’s downward trend. But Puddington, Freedom House’s director of research, lists a handful of possible factors.