Mikhail Prokhorov — businessman with roots in the USSR
Mikhail Prokhorov is a Russian billionaire who built his fortune in nickel (Norilsk Nickel) and banking before owning the Brooklyn Nets NBA franchise (2010-2019). He ran as a presidential candidate against Putin in 2012, receiving 8% of the vote. Following 2022 his assets were significantly constrained and he largely withdrew from public life.
Tracing the roots — Moscow (Russia)
Born in Moscow in 1965, Prokhorov embodied the contradictions of Russia's oligarch generation — enormously wealthy from Soviet-era industrial privatisation, cosmopolitan and Western in lifestyle, but ultimately unable to break from the Russian power structure. His Brooklyn Nets ownership brought Russian oligarchic capital into the heart of American sport.
Moscow (Russia). At the time, this region was one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union.