At an online conference on, Right Cause leader Mikhail Prokhorov, answering a question about which member of the tandem he supports more strongly, said he was ready to seek compromise with any political forces. He declined to make predictions about the outcome of the upcoming presidential elections.
Political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky, on the air of Kommersant FM, suggested that closer to the parliamentary elections Prokhorov would more clearly signal his sympathy for Dmitry Medvedev. According to Belkovsky, Prokhorov "is misleading the audience or, as they say now, taking them for suckers." At the same time, the analyst said, on the question of supporting Medvedev or Putin, Prokhorov "is actually telling the truth."
"Mikhail Prokhorov thinks that Dmitry Medvedev will become Russia's next president, but he doesn't know that for sure, and he doesn't want to make an unfounded prediction," Belkovsky reasoned.
He also noted that the potential electorate of Right Cause leans more toward Medvedev than Putin, and to mobilize that electorate Prokhorov "will still have to make up his mind and hint that a second term for Medvedev is better than a third term for Putin."
Pavel Salin, an expert at the Center for Political Conjuncture, said that Prokhorov dodged the question because he sees himself in the position now held by Vladimir Putin. According to Salin, Prokhorov's entry into politics aims not so much at promoting Right Cause as at personal PR with an eye on the prime minister's chair. Salin claimed that within the authorities there is a "kamikaze prime minister" project, whose task will be to shed after the elections the social obligations the government has taken on over the past five to seven years.
During the conference, Prokhorov also rejected possible parallels between himself and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, stressing that he had left the post of head of a large company before going into politics.
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