Personal freedoms are in short supply in Russia, according to a new report by US-based watchdog Freedom House. The annual Freedom in the World report released on January 12th, finds Russia near the bottom of the 193 countries surveyed.
      
      Freedom in the World 2009 examined the state of freedom in all 193 countries and 16 strategic territories. The countries were ranked on a 7 point scale for each category, 1 representing most free and 7 representing least free.
      
      For 2009, Russia received 6 points for political rights and 5 for civil liberties, the same score it has held since 2005. Non-Baltic countries of the former Soviet Union continued their decade-long decline, now ranking below Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East on several survey indicators. Russia and Georgia, which went to war over South Ossetia, were among the region's notable declines, as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova.
      
      Of the 42 countries designated Not Free, eight received the survey's lowest possible ranking for both political rights and civil liberties: North Korea, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Libya, Sudan, Burma, Equatorial Guinea and Somalia. Russia's Chechnya territory is in the same category.
      
      Source: www.freedomhouse.org