Politics

Nets Owner Prokhorov Wants To Challenge Putin

Despite accusations that he owes somewhere between $31 million and $72 million in unpaid taxes to Russia, Mikhail Prokhorov was just elected the head of a political party there.

Prokhorov, the owner of the Nets basketball team who’s worth about $18 billion, will head up the pro-democracy party called Pravoye Delo, according to Bloomberg. Prokhorov will challenge Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s party, United Russia.

Though Prokhorov is the third richest person in Russia, he says his party won’t be one that just helps out his kind. Instead, he hopes it attracts ambitious, working men and women and younger Russians “who want to choose for themselves how to live.” Curiously vague? Yes. But it doesn’t sound terrible.

We don’t doubt that Prokhorov has good ideas and could make a strong politician in Russia. We think the question, especially on a global stage, is whether Prokhorov will be able to ditch the hard-partying, modelizing image he’s acquired worldwide.

TAGS: pravoye delo | prokhorov prayove delo

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