Freedom House has released its "Freedom in the World 2012" report in which it downgraded Ukraine`s political rights rating as a result of the government’s use of courts for political purposes, harassment of media and use of force to disperse demonstrations, according to the Official web site of Yulia Tymoshenko.
"Ukraine declined over the past two years, that is to say the two years of Viktor Yanukovych’s leadership, more precipitously than any other major country in the world," Arch Puddington, vice president for research at Freedom House, said when presenting the findings of the annual report.
He also called the charges on which Yulia Tymoshenko was jailed as "clearly spurious" and urged the United States and Europe to "start pounding the table harder" on the Tymoshenko case.
Puddington pointed out that Ukraine was once looked to as a model of democracy in its region but has now started to wobble. Since Yanukovych became president, Ukraine has been downgraded from free to partially free. The situation in Ukraine has deteriorated significantly according to most of the Freedom House indicators.
