Prokhorov, a billionaire bachelor long seen more as playboy than politician, told The Freeland File on reuters.com Russians had shaken off a post-Soviet apathy and were now “just crazy about politics.” He denied accusations he was a Kremlin tool, let into the race to split the opposition and lend democratic legitimacy to a vote Putin seems almost certain to win.
Putin is seeking to return to the Kremlin and rule until at least 2018, but protests against alleged fraud in a December 4 parliamentary vote have exposed growing discontent with the system he has dominated for 12 years.
“What worked before does not work now. Look in the streets. People are not happy,” Prokhorov, 46, said in the interview beneath the windowed dome that soars above his spacious office on a central Moscow boulevard close to the Kremlin.
The 46-year-old metals magnate is Russia’s third richest man, with a reported fortune of $US18-billion. He is described as the country’s most eligible bachelor, and is known for his taste for lavish parties and beautiful women. He also owns the New Jersey Nets NBA basketball team, which he is moving to Brooklyn and hoping to make into New York’s new sports darling. His other ambitions include building Russia’s first mass-produced hybrid vehicles — painted outrageous fluorescent colours and branded the Yo-Mobiles — and helping the biathlon team train for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
He graduated from the Russian Government Finance University in 1989, joined the International Bank for Economic Cooperation, and went on to manage the acquisition of Norilsk Nickel by Onexim Bank, of which he was then chairman. He overhauled the company and in May 2007, Mr. Prokohorov launched a $US17-billion private investment fund, Onexim Group, focused on the development of nanotechnology. Also in 2007, Mr. Prokohorov was detained by French authorities in a prostitution probe in the ski resort Courcheval. Prosecutors dropped the case in 2009.
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