Ukraine is on its way to democracy, yet there are warning signs - Freedom House

International human rights organization Freedom House released a The Nations in Transition report on the state of democracy in the former communist countries. The organization stressed on the progress of Ukraine in the implementation of changes, Radio Liberty reports.

Report covers 29 postcommunist countries of the former Soviet Union and in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The report says 18 of them suffered declines this year in their so-called democracy scores, leaving more "consolidated authoritarian regimes" in the region than "consolidated democracies." The group called Ukraine a "bright spot" in the Nations in Transition 2017 report.

"In our survey, we saw Ukraine continuing to make progress in 2016, but at the same time there are seriously troubling signs that an old guard resistant to building an accountable state could still defeat reforms," - Nate Schenkkan, project director of Nations in Transit for Freedom House, told. "What is needed is that Ukraine’s international supporters continue the 'tough love' approach of the last three years supporting local civil society."

This year, Kyrgyzstan, which ousted a Soviet-era president in pro-democracy unrest in 2005, fell back into the Consolidated Authoritarian Regimes category. Kyrgyzstan’s backsliding leaves only four former Soviet states outside the Baltics -- Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine -- ranked above the category of Consolidated Authoritarian Regime.

Nations in Transit report is an annual survey made by Freedom House. Research project on democracy in the 29 formerly communist countries from Central Europe to Central Asia. The flagship of the project is an annual survey of democratic reform that has been published since 1995. In 2016, populist successes at the polls in Western Europe and the United States rocked the world, the United Kingdom’s vote to withdraw from the EU, and the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States all raised fresh doubts about the fragile post–Cold War order.