However the following concerns are noticeable:
– although the country showed exceptional growth over the last years, the economic and social situation does not benefit equally to the whole population. The failed transition from a soviet communist system to a liberal economy created enormous disparity between an elite group of persons or clans, who, on the one hand, monopolised the majority of the resources, and the rest of the population on the other. Although the country witnesses the emergence of a middle-class, it is still at the very bottom of the social scale.
Furthermore, these new wealthy people, which are interrelated with the spheres of political power, have instituted private armed polices, thus subjecting the country and the citizens to tangible threats and acts of violence, be they motivated by political or economic reasons. In addition, the country witnesses a high level of institutional corruption, endemic in the whole region.
Factual anti-democratic events are perceived as a growing and threatening trend over rights and freedoms before crucial parliamentary elections in 2007 and presidential election in 2008. A population indifferent to internal politics, an ethnically homogeneous country, a strong support from the Diaspora are all factors that ease the ruling of the country but also enable abuses by the holders of power. Political and economic powers enjoy impunity.