What nature couldn't accomplish, repressive states were able to achieve.

Yet subtle changes have begun, even if they amount to tiny fissures in a repressive state.

By the mid-1990s, Tunisia was reckoned as one of the most repressive states in the world.

It can open the door to a very repressive state.

A key element of their story, obviously, is the inevitable tension between art and a repressive state.

Experts have offered to share this technology with other repressive states, including Zimbabwe.

By the same token, stories that help forge greater democracy in repressive states should be held up for praise.

The problem, in the view of human rights groups and foreign diplomats, is that Tunisia also remains a repressive state.

But even in such a repressed and repressive state, Saudi security forces couldn't stop the terrorists.

Reading about the protest movement gave me hope that the younger generation would lift Serbia from its repressive state.