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September 15, 2011
Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov ousted from pro-Kremlin party
Oligarch claims Russian president Medvedev's aide is 'privatising' politics in dispute over parliamentary candidates
The Guardian
by Tom Parfitt
This is most probably a case of a fake candidate being ousted from his own fake party in a fake purge, but with Russia, it's hard to tell what's what.
Billionaire Russian metals tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov promised on Thursday to exact revenge on a top Kremlin official after the businessman was ousted as leader of his own political party.
Prokhorov, 46, Russia's third richest man with an estimated fortune of £11.4bn, accused President Dmitry Medvedev's deputy chief of staff, Vladislav Surkov, of "privatising the political system" and orchestrating his downfall.
In the closest that Moscow has seen to real political drama for several months, it appeared that members of Russia's governing elite had organised the tycoon's exit in order to punish him for refusing to toe the line after he agreed to head the minority Right Cause party in May.
...Right Cause projected a liberal, pro-business agenda under Prokhorov's leadership and has been widely seen as a Kremlin-controlled project to create the illusion of political competition in the run up to parliamentary elections in December.
NoLandGrab: Now here's a coincidence — Bruce Ratner has pretty much privatized the political system in New York State.
Posted by eric at September 15, 2011 5:37 PM