MOSCOW, March 12 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who came third in the Russian presidential race, said he might quit as the head of the national Biathlon Union following poor performance of the national team at the world championship.
Prokhorov, who co-owns New Jersey Nets basketball club, described the performance of Russian biathletes as “horrible failure” and admitted that he was also to blame for that as he did not pay sufficient attention to biathlon preparations because he had to focus on the presidential election campaign in the past three months.
“In the three months of the election campaign I did not pay attention to what was happening with our team. It is my fault as President of the Biathlon Union of Russia. I am not going to put the blame on anyone else although, as far as I know, nothing forebode such a fiasco,” he said in the Life Journal on Sunday.
Russia won only two bronze medals at the championship in Germany.
Prokhorov said he would “analyze the reasons of the poor result of our team.”
“If I realize that I can no longer efficiently combine the leadership of biathlon (union) and politics I do not rule out that I will resign as president of the Biathlon Union in the end of the year,” Prokhorov said.
After the election the billionaire said he went into politics “seriously and for the long haul” and planned to create a political party.