Один американский блогер пишет:
Here's a top story in the world of mainstream media on Monday:
Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, a metals magnate who also happens to own the New Jersey Nets pro-basketball team, declared that he wants to run in presidential elections in March next year.
Just look at the headlines:
New York Times: "Billionaire to Oppose Putin in Russian Presidential Election"
Bloomberg: "Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov plans to challenge Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for the Russian presidency in March elections after the biggest anti-government demonstrations in a decade"
Reuters: "Two Putin-era Russians seek liberal mantle" (the second being Alexey Kudrin, former minister of finance)
CNN: "Putin's Challenger"
Challenger? Seriously?
They really want to make you believe that Vladimir Putin is in danger of losing the elections to this guy, don't they?
Russians' attitude towards Prokhorov is roughly comparable to that of Americans' towards Donald Trump – they see unquestionable business acumen mixed with a rather erratic public behavior. In the past, Prokhorov’s name has primarily appeared in tabloids detailing "Russia's most-eligible bachelor's" escapades.
One of the country’s richest men will face an uphill battle to collect the required 2 million eligible signatures to even put his name on the ballot, never mind winning it.
Why? For all the smokescreen of "massive fraud in Russian elections" one issue is clearly being missed – Russia is still a very left-leaning country where the rich are widely and strongly despised. Double so for those who flaunt – or used to flaunt – their wealth.
A billionaire could become leader of a country like Italy or Thailand – and, possibly, of the United States. But never in Russia – or Germany. Or Sweden. Never happens.
Not the case in the warped world of the NYT. One really has to be as far away from the Russian reality as possible to believe that Just Russia, one of the election winners, is actually a "liberal socialist party". About as liberal as Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, another election winner.
But this op-ed of ours was meant to be not so much about how they want to skew the reality in Russia. It's actually about the stories that should have been on front pages, were the people who run them really to care for the value of news.

Не верит, что богатого выберут. И правильно!
А другой американец считает Прохорова проектом Суркова: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/12/14/project_prokhorov?page=0,0

В общем, гадают эти американцы на кофейной гуще. Да и мы тоже вынуждены гадать. О Прохорове я знаю:
- миллиардер
- плейбой, любит красивую жизнь и девочек
- делал ё-мобиль и не заплатил за детали тем, кому их заказывал

В общем что-то не очень симпатичная картина.