The sudden coup-like removal of Mikhail Prokhorov from the leadership of fake opposition party Pravoe Delo is the talk of the town, helped in no small part for his strong denunciation of Vladislav Surkov as a “puppetmaster” who whispers lies in the ears of Russia’s leaders, and leads them to premature decisions.  It’s pretty hard to believe that at least that part was scripted.  At any rate, here goes a bit from Joera Mulders article published on Russia Watchers, which captures some of the futility of Prokhorov’s campaign in the first place.

Today’s events, Prokhorov’s resignation as party leader, therefore came at a surprise. With the benefit of hindsight we may discern three main reasons.

First, as the boss of a huge business and financial empire, Prokhorov isn’t the man to make compromises, nor within the party, which leadership he assumed, nor with the ‘managers of democratization’ in the presidential administration, who were under the impression that they ‘hired’ him for their new party project. My way or the highway resulted in the highway.