Billionaire NBA Owner to Challenge Putin for Presidency

Say hello to Mikhail Prokhorov, the jet-skiing, gold-mining playboy who might just be what Russia ordered.

Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov announced today that he will run against Vladimir Putin in the country's upcoming presidential election. Prokhorov, 46, is Russia's third richest man and the owner of the NBA's New Jersey Nets. He says that he sees no one else in the country capable of taking on Putin in the March election just as the largest anti-government protests in a generation have swept through Moscow and St. Petersburg. Opposition politicians and activists have accused Putin's United Russia party of voting fraud in parliamentary elections held last weekend. Current Dmitry Medvedev has said he's opening an investigation into Russia's electoral monitors. And now, Prokhorov has announced that he has gathered up the necessary number of signatures needed to run for the presidency, although he has no name for his party, nor a platform, nor much in the way of public support just yet. He said today that he'll aim on freeing up the middle class and to move away from the populist pandering of United Russia, although he said he'd limit criticism of the current regime to just 10 per cent of his campaign rhetoric. The other 90 per cent will be devoted to "solutions."

So, who is this Mikhail Prokhorov, and why do we care? As you can see above, he, like Putin, has a thing for elaborately staged photo ops, although Putin has stuck with more traditional Russian archetypes (hunting bears) while Prokhorov's are much more of 21st-Century, nouveau Russian riche variety (self-produced jet-ski videos). He's worth between $13 and $18 billion, thanks to his entrepreneurial cunning in the world mining and metals. He was also given an in-depth profile by 60 Minutes last year on the eve of his purchase of the Nets, a profile that revealed some of his more billionaire-esque eccentricities, spending habits, and workout regime (take note, Putin: Prokhorov's probably one of the few billionaires on the planet who could at least give you a run for you money in a fistfight. He's 6'8" and is trained by the head coach of Russia's national kickboxing team. Maybe not quite ex-KGB, but that's nothing to sneeze at, either). Earlier this year, he ran for and won the leadership of Right Cause, a pro-business opposition party in Russia. Just a few months afterward, though, he resigned, saying that it was a "puppet Kremlin party" really ran by the "puppet-master", Putin. Needless to say, he's not exactly a big fan of the current regime. (For hilarious basketball-related analysis, and further insight into the mad, mad world of Mikhail 'Mike' Prokhorov, we suggest you read ESPN's Bill Simmons take on the heli-skiing giant.)