MOSCOW (AP) — Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov says if he is elected as the nation's president, he could appoint a former oil tycoon who has been jailed for alleged embezzlement as his prime minister.
Prokhorov, an owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, made his comment about Mikhail Khodorkovsky in an interview on the Ekho Moskvy radio Tuesday.
But Prokhorov also said that he would consider Alexei Kudrin, Russia’s finance minister in 2000-2011, for the prime ministerial post.
Many believe Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003 as punishment for challenging Vladimir Putin, who was president at the time.
By contrast, Kudrin is regarded as a close ally of Putin’s, although he left the government late last year in a disagreement with President Dmitry Medvedev.
Prokhorov is running against Putin in March’s presidential vote, and some observers believe he may have received the Kremlin’s blessing to run in order to create a semblance of genuine competition.
