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Elena Leontjeva, the president of the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, has resigned from the position of economic advisor to the president of Lithuania.
Elena Leontjeva made public her decision to resign from the position of President Adamkus' economic advisor before the scandalous sale of Lithuania's oil complex was concluded. "It was a conscious decision, she noted, "which was determined by my moral premises and therefore cannot be affected by any further externalities."
Elena Leontjeva resigned motivating that the official line was increasingly deviating from free market principles and that inappropriate government actions discredited the idea of privatisation, open markets, and private investments. LFMI's leader had agreed to work with President Adamkus when he took office in March 1998 as they had agreed to strive for people's material and moral well-being by means of free market solutions. Ms. Leontjeva advised Valdas Adamkus on a voluntary basis while she continued to serve as LFMI's president.
As Elena Leontjeva noted, the two responsible positions - LFMI president's and economic advisor's to the president of Lithuania - were a heavy but bearable burden so long as they did not contradict each other ideologically and practically. "But I understood that this mark had been overstepped; that I could not afford any longer to waste my time on seeking new political compromises when this could not change the official line," Elena Leontjeva said. She added that this official position was significant in that it helped to promote a free market and to curb the spread of socialism from the highest level. "But in an ever-increasing number of cases it limited my possibilities to gain passage for free market solutions," LFMI's president said. "I decided that I am much better and much more efficient leading an independent organisation the direct and sole mission of which is to realize free market principles."
November 4, 1999
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