Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia's Third Richest Man, To Challenge Putin For Russian Presidency

Billionaire Owner Of US Basketball Team To Run Against Russia's Putin

The billionaire owner of an American basketball team has announced he intends to challenge Vladimir Putin for the Russian presidency.

Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia's third richest man with an estimated fortune of £11.5bn, launched his bid on Monday.

"I have made a decision, probably the most serious decision of my life," he said. "I am going to run in the presidential election."

In a reference to the mass anti-government protests against that have been staged across the country in recent days, Prokhorov said "those authorities who will fail to establish a dialogue with society will have to go".

He said he would be a "defender of middle-class interests".

Prokhorov, 46, made his fortune in metals and banking and became majority stakeholder in the New Jersey Nets last year.

However there is a belief that far from being a serious challenger to Putin, Prokhorov is little more than a Kremlin stooge who has been brought into the race in order to channel dissatisfaction with Putin and incumbent president Dmitry Medvedev away from the streets.

Boris Nemtsov, a longtime opponent of the Putin regime who was banned from standing in the parliamentary elections, told Reuters that Prokhorov's candidacy was a farce. "This is a 100 percent Putin-inspired project," he said.

The Guardian reported that Prokhorov only last week praised Putin as "so far the only one who can somehow manage this ineffective government machine".

Prokhorov must now collect two million signatures to qualify for the race.

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