Armenia continues to be listed among semi-consolidated authoritarian regimes in the Freedom House report titled “Nations in Transit 2014.”

Armenia has scored 5.36 points and has low rating in the survey’s civil society category.

As to the neighboring countries, Georgia is listed among the states with transitional government or hybrid regime, while Azerbaijan is named a country with consolidated authoritarian regime. The report indicates  crackdown on civil society activists, political opponents, and the media following presidential elections in Azerbaijan last October.

“After six consecutive years of decline, the largest and wealthiest country in the Caucasus—and the newest chair of the Committee of Ministers for the Council of Europe—now has the democracy rating of a deeply entrenched Central Asian dictatorship, with less freedom of assembly or expression than Tajikistan and more flagrant corruption than Kazakhstan,”  the report reads.

Besides, the report indicates Russia's key role in decline of democracy in post-Soviet area.

“Even in states where government and law enforcement already surpass their Russian counterparts in institutionalized brutality and intolerance, the Kremlin’s legislation has served as an inspiration,” the experts say.