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In late 1991, the Soviet Union was dissolved, and the Soviet republics became 15 independent countries. All 15 countries have had "elections" -- including, most recently, Belarus, where thousands of people have taken to the street to protest the Aug. 9 election in which the president who has been in power since 1994 received 80% of the vote. But as this geo-graphic, based on data from the Bertelsmann Transformation Index, shows, none of the former Soviet republics (except the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) score above "limited" in assessments of their transition to democracy and a market economy. Belarus is "very limited." www.statista.com/chart/22584/post-soviet-democracy