Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov announced Monday that he plans to run in the presidential elections scheduled for March 4 as an independent candidate.
Prokhorov, who owns gold mines in Siberia and a professional basketball team in the United States, became the head of the Right Cause party this summer, promising to give it the second-biggest faction in the State Duma at the Dec. 4 elections. But he was ousted in September by a party coup, which he blamed on the Kremlin.
Prokhorov will have to collect 2 million signatures in support of his candidacy to be included in the ballot, on which the favorite is Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Putin filed his paperwork with the Central Elections Commission last week.
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