Freedom House announces a threat to democracy in Ukraine on the part of far right

Far right extremist groups negatively affect the development of democracy in Ukraine. This was stated by director of programs in the countries of Europe and Asia Freedom House Mark Berendt during the discussion "Is the far right extremism threatening Ukrainian democracy?", - Livyi Bereh reports.

Freedom House is worried about the radical-extremist violence in Ukraine, because it has quite a negative effect on the development of democracy in the country. Democracy cannot survive when political disagreements cannot come to solutions through discussion. Today only a small part of the Ukrainian population feels this threat. Unfortunately, those groups that feel this are the most vulnerable. Unfortunately, the perpetrators of this violence are unpunished, what threatens democracy in the country", - Berendt stated.

According to another participant in the discussion, expert on the far right groups in Ukraine and Russia Vyacheslav Likhachev, the facts of violence against minorities in Ukraine, including against the Roma, have become more frequent recently. In his opinion, the situation was better a year ago.

Likhachev also noted that the far right groups in Ukraine explode the reputation of the authorities.

The organizers of the action stated that they received threats on the eve of the discussion. Therefore, the employees of the National Police were involved for the protection of the event.