Mikhail Prokhorov against Vladimir Putin
Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov is seeking to tap the dissent that sparked Russia’s biggest anti- government demonstrations in a decade, pledging to run against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for the presidency next March.
“Society is awakening” – the New Jersey Nets basketball team owner told reporters in Moscow yesterday after announcing his candidacy in the wake of protests against alleged fraud in a December 4 parliamentary vote. Those among the authorities who fail to establish dialogue with the public “will have to leave.”
Thousands of Russians took to the streets to protest the results of a parliamentary contest that observers from the U.S. and Europe said was neither free nor fair. Prokhorov, 46, Russia’s third-richest man with a fortune Forbes magazine put at 18 billion dollars, said he plans to build grassroots support and that he opposes “revolution” and “populism.”
“He could certainly act as a channel to vent out the frustration of many young professional voters” – Lilit Gevorgyan, a London-based analyst at IHS Global Insight, said yesterday by e-mail. “His entry could be a game changer in what otherwise seems to be a perfectly controlled vote.”
Russia’s benchmark Micex Index of 30 stocks fell for a third day, retreating 0.5 percent to 1,343.80 at 1:28 p.m. in Moscow after last week’s 7.3 percent decline, the biggest in almost three months. The ruble weakened for a ninth straight trading session against the dollar, losing 0.2 percent to 31.6568.
Mikhail Prokhorov.
Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who is with the tabloid nickname “the Holiday Man” and as well the owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, has pled to run against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for the presidency next March.
Mr. Prokhorov, the billionaire who is majority owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball franchise, became famous in Russia as a playboy, with the tabloid nickname “the Holiday Man.” He has long walked a fine line in his relationship with the Kremlin, maintaining a degree of independence while rebels among his fellow oligarchs ended up in exile or in prison.
Putin’s ruling United Russia party suffered its biggest setback since he came to power a decade ago, with its majority in the State Duma eroded to 238 of the legislature’s 450 seats from 315 in 2007 as stalling wage growth and the government’s shortcomings in curbing corruption repelled voters.
An opposition crowd of 25.000 people rallied in central Moscow on December 10, according to police, in the city’s largest anti-government protest since Putin first became president in 2000. A same-sized demonstration occupied Red Square yesterday in support of United Russia, authorities said.
“This is the most important decision of my life” – said Prokhorov, who quit as leader of the Right Cause party on September 15 after accusing President Dmitry Medvedev’s administration of blocking the group’s preparations for the parliamentary vote.
Prokhorov is seeking to be an “integrator” who can unite Russia’s liberal opposition, the billionaire told the Interfax news service yesterday in an interview.
Just before noon on Monday, December 12, the Russian billionaire owner of the New Jersey Nets, Mikhail Prokhorov, sent an invitation around to the Moscow press corps, a group of people not presently inclined to listen to the musings of an oligarch. Russia is now in the middle of its worst political crisis in more than a decade, and the punishing stream of news has left even veteran reporters bleary-eyed and manic. “This damn well better be good” – one of them remarked as Prokhorov sauntered into the room, wearing a purple tie and a smirk. He did not disappoint. Without so much as a preamble, he announced that he would be running against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Russia’s paramount leader, in the presidential election this March. For at least the third time in a week, Russia’s political drama twisted around like a soap-opera plot.
Here was a man with a fortune of 18 billion dollars, young, slick and at least a head taller than any other local politician, challenging Putin to an electoral duel at the Russian leader’s time of greatest weakness. For a brief moment, it was hard not to feel a pang of sympathy for Russia’s ruling strongman. Putin’s party stands accused of rigging last week’s parliamentary elections, which have unleashed an outpouring of public anger unlike any Putin has ever seen. Tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied on Saturday, Dec. 10, against the ballot results, shattering what paltry faith was left in Russia’s electoral system. In less than three months, Putin will have to face re-election himself, and it was already shaping up to be the fight of his life before Prokhorov stepped into the picture.
But like any good pulp-fiction plot, this one has its share of twists. Prokhorov turns out, upon closer inspection, to be the best opponent Putin could possibly ask for — more like a godsend than another crack on the head. “This will only work in Putin’s favor” – said Sergei Markov, one of the Kremlin’s favored campaign strategists.
By playing the part of Putin’s competitor in the upcoming elections, Prokhorov will mollify the protesters who have packed the squares of cities across the country in the past week. These are the hipster masses of the young, urban middle class who have already flooded Prokhorov’s Facebook page with supportive comments. In March, instead of protesting against Putin during the election, they will be able to vote for Prokhorov, who explicitly said that he would seek to represent their demographic. Said the plutocrat – “My electoral base is the middle class in the broadest possible sense of the word.”