A publication of Freedom House human rights organization says that Russia has become 'the leading antidemocratic force' in the region.

"Over time, we have seen rising oil prices correlate clearly with sharply falling democracy performance, especially in Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan," the group's director of studies, Christopher Walker, said in an interview.

The report says that these three former Soviet republics are basing their development on energy resources, and the last decade was marked by "sharp and systematic erosion of accountability and transparency".

In Russia, by last year, it became clear that Vladimir Putin's era had ushered in a new elite that grabbed power, Freedom House said. Experimenting in "authoritarian capitalism," an "Iron Triangle" of state power, industry chiefs and security services is leading a decline in the electoral process and increased control over political opponents and news media, the report said.

Human rights activists believe that "the growing authoritarianism is also shaping foreign policy, producing "a more assertive and often belligerent posture by Russia toward its neighbors."

Earlier the same American human rights organization monitoring levels of freedom all around the world announced that the worst situation with human rights is in Tibet, which is now under control of China, and in Chechnya, which is now under the invasion by Moscow. At the same time the report by the Freedom House stressed that the situation in Chechnya is the "worst of the worst".

Freedom House also pointed out that "an indigenous Islamic population is engaged in a brutal guerrilla war for independence from Russia".

Kavkaz Center