The formal pretext for the conflict between Mikhail Prokhorov and the Kremlin was Yevgeny Roizman. As Kommersant FM reported, political analysts called the return of the head of the City Without Drugs foundation to federal politics the main achievement of the former leader of Right Cause.
Prokhorov himself blamed the presidential administration and personally Vladislav Surkov for his expulsion from the party. Boris Nadezhdin, a member of Right Cause's political council, told Interfax that Prokhorov lost the leadership because of his presidential ambitions: according to him, the conflict around the party arose from Prokhorov's claims to the post of head of state.
Belkovsky's View
Stanislav Belkovsky told Kommersant FM that Roizman's return to federal politics is the best thing Prokhorov managed to do as leader of Right Cause.
"He is, in fact, only now entering the federal stage—largely thanks to this scandal. The combination of qualities with which Roizman is endowed: a Robin Hood reputation, the views of a Russian nationalist of Jewish origin, a certain gift for poetry—this is the ideal concoction for an opposition leader, if, of course, Roizman himself wants to become one," the political analyst said.
Assessments and Roizman's Position
Political analyst Nikolai Troitsky, in turn, said the Kremlin disliked the independence of Roizman and Prokhorov. According to him, the complaints made against Roizman also apply to Prokhorov: both are "too independent and unpredictable," even though they are not opposition figures and emphasize their loyalty. Troitsky also named Alexander Lebedev in this group.
Yevgeny Roizman himself said that his and Prokhorov's departure from Right Cause is only the beginning of their political struggle. The day before, Mikhail Prokhorov did not rule out that he would run in Russia's presidential election.
Roizman was born in Sverdlovsk in 1962, graduated from Gorky Ural State University as a historian-archivist, a specialist in Old Believer icon painting. In 1981 he was convicted of theft, fraud and illegal possession of a bladed weapon; the initial sentence was suspended, then followed by imprisonment, and in 1984 the conviction was expunged. In the late 80s he began writing poetry, published several collections, and in the 90s went into business. In 1999 he became one of the founders of the City Without Drugs foundation, whose activists, with the support of the Uralmash group and its head Alexander Khabarov, fought drug trafficking in the city. At the same time he founded the private museum Nevyansk Icon. From December 2001 to December 2007 he was a State Duma deputy from the Ordzhonikidze district of Sverdlovsk Oblast, receiving about 40% of the vote in the election, and worked on the Russian government's commission on combating drugs.
In 2007, the regional conference of A Just Russia nominated Roizman as the first number on one of the party's lists for the State Duma elections, but at the party's national congress in September of that year his candidacy was removed from the list.
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