Billionaire Kremlin hopeful: civil war may erupt in Russia

PanARMENIAN.Net - The stand-off between Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and anti-government protesters may escalate into a civil war, billionaire presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov/b> was cited as saying.

“I’m for Russia with Putin, but also for Russia with writer Boris Akunin and blogger Alexei Navalny, who demand Putin’s resignation,” Prokhorov told influential German weekly Der Spiegel in an interview published on Monday, January 30.

“If opposing parties fail to move toward each other, the worst case scenario is a civil war,” said Prokhorov, who will run against Putin and three others in the presidential elections on March 4.

The businessman, whose fortune is estimated at $18 billion, urged “evolution, not revolution” and acknowledged that “Putin has achievements,” but also promised sweeping political and economic reforms if he wins the vote.

Putin faced the biggest street protests in two decades after his party, United Russia, won the parliamentary elections in December. Skeptics insist the result was only achieved through vote rigging and speculate that similar fraud is being planned for the March vote, RIA Novosti reported.