President Vladimir Putin is poised to give the Russian government the tools to exert even greater control over the country’s already beleaguered non-governmental sector. The restrictive NGO law broadens the grounds for denying registration to or closing Russian NGOs. The draft law represents the most recent blow in what is a larger, systematic effort by the authorities to curb independent voices in Russia.

Moreover, this Kremlin measure is just the latest in a string of repressive steps taken throughout the former Soviet Union. The ferocity with which post-Soviet strongmen have reacted confirms that these regimes are dropping even the pretence of democratic practice. Two divergent story lines have emerged in the past year in the former Soviet Union (FSU). One is in the “revolution” countries of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, where popular pushback against corrupt, autocratic leadership opened the door for a degree of democratic reform not previously experienced in these countries’ suffocating political environments. The other narrative, found in virtually all of the remaining countries of the non-Baltic FSU, is one of increased state repression to ensure regime security.

Of the 12 non-Baltic FSUs, seven countries are rated “not free,” four are “partly free,” and one is “free.” Ukraine, whose Orange revolution captured the entire world’s imagination, joined the ranks of countries rated “free” in 2005. But this is not to suggest that these transitions are going smoothly. Meanwhile, in contrast to struggles for reform in these countries, leaders in capitals such as Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Minsk, Belarus; and Moscow are pursuing a dramatically different agenda. Last year saw a raft of measures, all designed to bring about even greater obedience from independent forces in the society. The brunt of the political assault hit the last vestiges of independent civic life, which included new regulations to limit political competition and protest, as well as brutality of an entirely new order in Uzbekistan.

In Belarus, President Aleksandr Lukashenka signed into law on December 21 legislation that would further undermine the opposition in the run-up to this year’s presidential elections. The new measure makes it a crime punishable by up to two years in jail to “discredit Belarus” in the eyes of international organisations and foreign governments. Moscow, meanwhile, is

constricting political space at home as it carves out a role as an enabler of autocracy in neighbouring states. Restricting independent NGOs is one thing. The Kremlin is taking things one step further by creating obedient parallel bodies — “pseudo-civil society” — whose principal purpose is to toe the line of the authorities.

Greater repression is not the cure for what ails these post-Soviet societies. On the contrary, what is needed is an approach that recognises average citizens’ rights and offers a path for the normalisation of politics. The sooner these societies are opened, the better for everyone. — The Christian Science Monitor