Having passed veteran politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky and coming third after the Sunday presidential elections, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, the only new face in the 2012 Kremlin race, has demonstrated that the political system is hungry for change, analysts said Sunday night.
"For someone who has been perceived as yet another actor in the Kremlin play rather than an independent political player, someone who could campaign for only two months and someone who has anywhere between $15 and $18 billion, it is a success," Konstantin von Eggert, a political analyst and a RIA Novosti columnist, said.
He added that Prokhorov's result is first and foremost a sign that a large segment of Russian voters wants a change and is ready to vote for a new face.
"That success, however, is not due to Prokhorov's charm, but to the marked desire of a large number of Russian voters, particularly in the big cities, to see new faces in politics. And that is something that the authorities will not be able to ignore."
With half of the votes counted shortly after midnight in Moscow, Prokhorov, one of the country's richest men who had ran a rather bland and measured pro-business campaign, was coming in third with 6.97% of the votes. The percentage is expected to be higher in Moscow and other big cities. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin garnered over 60 percent, according to the preliminary results published early Monday, and clearly won the elections in the first round.
Prokhorov, who said he had counted on more than 10 percent of the vote, vowed to remain in politics, but countered predictions that, as Putin's creation intended to attract the liberal protest vote, he would take a post in Vladimir Putin's new government.
"I will not accept a post [in the government]," Prokhorov said Sunday night on Channel One television. "I will be building a political party which will fight for power."
He called the elections "dishonest" but stopped short of declaring them "illegitimate" as some opposition leaders had said. Prokhorov said his campaign staff has registered about 4,000 violations and judging from how big they are, he will make up his mind about the legitimacy of the elections.
Putin congratulated Prokhorov after the vote and wished him success in creating a new right party, an intention Prokhorov expressed after his failed attempt to bring a tiny liberal Right Cause party into the parliament in December. Prokhorov accused then Kremlin deputy chief of staff Vladislav Surkov of blocking his entry into national politics.
This time, with his nomination apparently getting a nod of approval from the Kremlin, Prokhorov treaded carefully in his campaign trying to present himself as an alternative to the powers that be while not fully exploiting the potential of the opposition. He reflected the same attitude after the first polling results started to pour in Sunday.
"It is such a karma in our country - we either kowtow to the authorities or mount a Russian rebellion, senseless and merciless," he said. "I am for the middle way - to manage to negotiate even if we are of different political views."
Prominent lawyer Mikhail Barschevsky, who represents the government in the Constitutional and Supreme courts, said on the Channel One television that it was an extraordinary result that up to 8 percent of Russians "are ready to vote for a rich man."
