New Jersey Nets owner and Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov has announced today that he will challenge Vladimir Putin for the Russian presidency.
From the AP:
The announcement Monday by Mikhail Prokhorov underlines the extent of the discontent with Putin, who has dominated Russian politics for a dozen years–first as president, then as prime minister.
It comes on the heels of Saturday’s unprecedented nationwide protests against Putin and his party, United Russia. Tens of thousands of people gathered in the streets to denounce alleged election fraud favoring United Russia in Dec. 4 parliamentary elections.
The fraud and the party’s comparatively poor showing in the elections–losing about 20 percent of its seats, although it retained a narrow majority–galvanized long-marginalized opposition forces to conduct a startling series of demonstrations, including an enormous rally of at least 30,000 in Moscow alone.