From a Breitbart.com article, Putin's liberal economic adviser resigns :
Putin's liberal economic adviser resigns, saying Russia 'not free' [/] Dec 27 8:09 AM US/Eastern
President Vladimir Putin's outspoken liberal economic adviser Andrei Illarionov announced his resignation to protest what he said was an end to political freedom in Russia. "It is one thing to work in a partially free country, as Russia was six years ago. It's another when the country has stopped being politically free," Illarionov, 44, was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS news agency on Tuesday. He said he expected Putin to accept his resignation.
Illarionov, who became Putin's economic adviser in 2000, said he did not recognise the country anymore. [/] "In these six years the situation has radically changed and in the last year it became clear that not only the political, but economic model of the country has changed," he was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS. "I did not go to work for such a country, or sign a contract, or swear an oath."
[…] Illarionov has long been the highest profile critic within the Kremlin of the Putin administration. Just last week, in what may have been his last major press conference as adviser, he said: "Russia has ceased being a free and democratic country."
Illarionov has cut an increasingly lonely figure as he lashed out at the direction the country was taking -- in stark contrast to the rest of the Kremlin's tightly managed information machine. […] [My ellipses and emphasis]
