Lithuania: Valdas Adamkus Becomes LithuaniaS Second President Since Independence From The USSR

Record ID: 3969

  • Title: Lithuania: Valdas Adamkus Becomes LithuaniaS Second President Since Independence From The USSR
  • Date: 26th February 1998
  • Summary: An American migr took office as Lithuania's second president since independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991, pledging to work for entry to the European Union and NATO. Valdas Adamkus, 71, took office on February 26 succeeding ex-communist Algirdas Brazauskas. He took power in a ceremony in the parliament, still surrounded by concrete barricades from the 1991 fight for independence from Moscow. Brazauskas leaves office as Lithuania's most popular politician, admired for his modesty and pragmatism amid bitter fights between the former communist left and the nationalist right now in power. Despite being Lithuania's last Communist Party boss, Brazauskas was a reformer and oversaw the firm establishment of democratic institutions. But under his rule, during most of which ex-Communists held power, Lithuania gained a reputation as a laggard in privatisation where the bureaucracy was still run with Soviet-style inefficiency and dishonesty. Adamkus said one of his goals was to make Lithuanian society more transparent and rebuild popular confidence in state institutions.
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  • Location: LITHUANIA VILNIUS PARLIAMENTS
  • Reuters ID: LDL00128H50R3
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
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  • Copyright Holder: Reuters Archive
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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