May 2016: participants cheer at the Eurasian Youth-Patriotic Camp Forum in Donuzlav, Crimea. (c) Artem Kreminsky / VisualRIAN. All rights reserved.For the past decade, the annual report from Freedom House on political and civil liberties has made for sombre reading. Every year for the past 12 years, Freedom in the World has marked an annual decline in political and civic freedoms in eastern Europe and Eurasia. In much of the former Soviet Union, authoritarianism has become the default political system, informed by a remarkably unified set of ideas about the world, the state, and about politics and society, that resonate among elites. This “Moscow consensus” over norms and values poses a significant challenge to liberal ideas and practices across the region.
Authoritarian rule has multiple causes, most of them related to domestic politics, and historical and cultural factors. But the international and regional environment probably plays a role. Across Eurasia, authoritarian states increasingly band together to resist liberal values and pro-democracy initiatives. Groups such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) or the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) increasingly resemble what Alex Cooley calls a “League of Authoritarian Gentlemen”. Regional organisations and institutions such as the SCO play an important role in supporting non-democratic governments in the region, through legal agreements such as multilateral counter-terrorism mechanisms or extradition procedures such as the Minsk Treaty.
Yet these bodies are often not very effective in formal terms. They mostly exist as virtual bodies, marked by high-flown rhetoric and grandiose summits. These institutions are more influential as mechanisms that help to diffuse non-liberal ideas and norms and help to develop a common worldview among their members. Alongside these multilateral organisations, a range of other channels, such as Russian media, education and training initiatives, social media and multiple, informal links among ordinary people, all contribute to a shared conversation about the world and politics that has profound ramifications for political developments in the region.
