MOSCOW, May 12 (Itar-Tass) — One of Russia’s presidential candidates in the March 4 election, multi-millionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, has urged the Russian authorities and the Opposition, which keeps staging street protests disguised as “outdoor festivities” to calm down and to refrain from looking for enemies among fellow citizens.
“We all should restore calm in our heads and in our cities. There are no enemies, there are no foes and non-foes. All are friends, and the authorities should remember that they are responsible for all citizens of Russia, irrespective of whether they had voted for the authorities or not,” Prokhorov said in a remark left in his internet-blog following the oppositional March of Millions on May 6 and the continuing protest actions in the Russian capital.
Prokhorov, who placed third in the Russian presidential election and participated in the March rallies by the opposition For Fair Elections, criticized the opposition for actions that are “often senseless in form and in content,” and the authorities for sending “almost an army” to deal with civilians.
After the end of the presidential campaign Prokhorov had planned to focus on creating a “fundamentally new” network liberal party. He had hoped to form it within three or four months and even declared a contest in the internet for selecting its regional leaders.
At the beginning of April Prokhorov declared that alongside the party he would be creating a wide civil platform with the aim to participate in regional elections, in the first place, the mayoral elections in Krasnoyarsk. Prokhorov believes that such a platform might draw those who are unprepared or fundamentally reluctant to join any political parties, but is prepared to unite for the sake of formulating general demands addressed to the authorities.