New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov will run for president of Russia, he announced at a press conference on Monday, and challenge presumptive favorite and Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin for control of one of the world's most powerful nations.
Mikhail Prokhorov To Run For President Of Russia, Challenge Vladimir Putin
New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov will run for president of Russia.
“I made a decision, probably the most serious decision in my life: I am going to the presidential election,” Prohkorov said at a news conference in Moscow, where he asserted that he has the infrastructure necessary to earn the two million signatures necessary to appear on the ballot as an independent candidate.
Prokhorov was removed as the head of business-friendly Russian party Just Cause in September after a conflict with Kremlin strategists. He, like every other Russian candidate not named Putin, will be an underdog in the election, with the former president widely expected to take back control of the country in name after running it in truth during hand-picked successor Dmitri Medvedev’s stint in office.
The last Russian businessman to run for president against the ruling party’s wishes, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was jailed in 2003 on charges of fraud after he began supporting an opposition political party. Khodorkovsky remains in jail today, and Amnesty International considers him a political prisoner.
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