Russian billionaire to run for president
http://dervishcom.blogspot.com/2011/12/russian-billionaire-to-run-for.html
Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who owns the New Jersey Nets of the NBA, announced today that he will create a new party to challenge Vladimir Putin for the Russian presidency.
"I made probably the most serious decision in my life. I am running for president," Prokhorov told a news conference in Moscow, RIA Novosit reports.
The announcement comes after a week of increasingly angry protests in Moscow and other Russians cities against last week's parliamentary elections and the slim victory by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia Party.
Demonstrators alleged that the elections were rigged and should be annulled. Official international observers have also called the elections into question.
Putin, who served two terms as president before becoming prime minister, is running again for president in the March elections.
Prokhorov said he will focus his campaign on issues affecting Russia's growing middle class and not on criticizing Putin.
"Criticism must make up no more than 10%. … I would like to focus on the things I would do," he said.
Prokhorov, who made his money in gold and metal investments, pledged to build a new political party "from scratch." He had joined the pro-business Just Cause party, but was ousted in September after he ran afoul of some Kremlin strategists in the party.
At his news conference, Prokhorov said he fully expected Russian authorities to put pressure on him or his business.
"We have a proverb in Russia that no one is guaranteed safe from misery or prison, but I am not afraid. I am not doing anything illegal, I am marching with an open visor and I am not afraid," Prokhorov said, according to RT.
Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, responded to Prokhorov's candidacy by saying that "the situation was not surprising" and that "any person who has the constitutional and legal right to run for the presidency, has this right."
"I made probably the most serious decision in my life. I am running for president," Prokhorov told a news conference in Moscow, RIA Novosit reports.
The announcement comes after a week of increasingly angry protests in Moscow and other Russians cities against last week's parliamentary elections and the slim victory by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia Party.
Demonstrators alleged that the elections were rigged and should be annulled. Official international observers have also called the elections into question.
Putin, who served two terms as president before becoming prime minister, is running again for president in the March elections.
Prokhorov said he will focus his campaign on issues affecting Russia's growing middle class and not on criticizing Putin.
"Criticism must make up no more than 10%. … I would like to focus on the things I would do," he said.
Prokhorov, who made his money in gold and metal investments, pledged to build a new political party "from scratch." He had joined the pro-business Just Cause party, but was ousted in September after he ran afoul of some Kremlin strategists in the party.
At his news conference, Prokhorov said he fully expected Russian authorities to put pressure on him or his business.
"We have a proverb in Russia that no one is guaranteed safe from misery or prison, but I am not afraid. I am not doing anything illegal, I am marching with an open visor and I am not afraid," Prokhorov said, according to RT.
Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, responded to Prokhorov's candidacy by saying that "the situation was not surprising" and that "any person who has the constitutional and legal right to run for the presidency, has this right."
