MOSCOW, October 20. /TASS/. Russian billionaire tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov may re-emerge as leader of the Civic Platform party, which seeks to return into active politics and announce its new program, the Izvestia daily on Monday quotes the chairman of the party’s federal political committee, Rifat Shaikhutdinov, as saying.

According to Shaikhutdinov, party founder Mikhail Prokhorov’s return will be discussed in 2016, after the party decides on its strategy in the 2016 election to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.

“We are now sizing up how to do this, and that is why are experimenting with different forms,” he said. “But in order to lead the party into the parliamentary election, Mikhail Prokorov must sort out the issue of his western assets. In line with the law, participation in political activity is impossible with foreign assets,” he told the newspaper.

He said it was not easy to sell assets worth billions in crisis conditions. “It is now time to buy rather than to sell. Prices of everything are going down,” he said.

Last week, Prokhorov’s sister Irina left the post of chairperson of the party’s Federal Civic Committee after assuming it from her brother the end of 2013.

Shaikhutdinov said no new changes were planned in the party after Mikhail and Irina Prokhorov left it.