Directed democracy
I guess Prokhorov doesn't want to end up like KhodorkovskyRussian Billionaire Announces Plan for Political Party
Mikhail D. Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire and principal owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, announced Monday that he would lead a liberal Russian political party with close ties to the Kremlin.
The decision, seven months before parliamentary elections, seems to be part of a Kremlin effort to provide an alternative for Russians disaffected with the country’s dominant political party, United Russia, while still ensuring continued support for the ruling authorities.
The party that Mr. Prokhorov will lead, Right Cause, generally espouses pro-Western liberal views in tune with those of the business and intellectual elite in Moscow and St. Petersburg. It was set up by the Kremlin in 2008, and some critics refer to it as nothing more than a fake opposition intended to help give Russia the semblance of a true multiparty democracy.
The Kremlin did not immediately comment, though it is very unlikely that Mr. Prokhorov would have made the decision without the approval of Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin and President Dmitri A. Medvedev…
Mr. Prokhorov’s decision seems certain to increase speculation over which of Russia’s leaders will run in the presidential election in March 2012. Mr. Putin and Mr. Medvedev, longtime political allies, have said that that they would not compete against each other and that they would decide between themselves who would run.
That has not prevented the country’s elite from taking sides. Mr. Putin, as United Russia’s leader, has the party’s backing. The prime minister has also unveiled a new political organization, the All-Russia People’s Front, that appears to be part of an effort to broaden his support.
Right Cause has already declared its support for a second term for Mr. Medvedev, though it was unclear whether Mr. Prokhorov would personally follow suit…
Denis Volkov, an analyst at the Levada Center, a research organization in Moscow, said it was too early to tell how Mr. Prokhorov’s foray into politics might alter the political calculus, to the extent that there is one in Russia. He also said that Mr. Prokhorov had probably had little choice.
“Major businessmen are under the authorities’ control,” Mr. Volkov said. “If the government says you have to head a party, you head a party.”
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Labels: parties, politics, Russia
posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:25 AM
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Billionaire Owner of New Jersey Nets Takes Helm of Party in Russia
"The billionaire owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, Mikhail D. Prokhorov, was elected leader of a Russian political party on Saturday in the first foray of a big businessman into politics here in nearly a decade...
"The event suggested the birth of a new political movement in Russia, and was spoken of in this way by participants, though the party’s creation was apparently coordinated with Russian government officials some time ago in preparation for the parliamentary elections in fall. Still, it also had all the signs of a political maneuver used by Mr. Putin before, of co-opting opposition organizations by arranging to have nominally independent but in fact loyal figures take charge..."
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