Prokhorov Gets a Reminder of His Limits

The Financial Times is reporting that Mikhail Prokhorov’s bank has just gotten the BP treatment:

Masked police on Thursday entered the Moscow headquarters of a bank part-owned by a billionaire oligarch and leader of a liberal political party that is contesting elections in December.

The masked police drove up to the bank, MFK, in which Mikhail Prokhorov is the main shareholder, in an unmarked black Mercedes and BMW.

They ordered employees into a room where they were locked for more than 30 minutes, according to Maxim Chizhov, spokesman for the Right Cause party, of which Mr Prokhorov is leader. (…)

“No one interferes with Prokhorov. Quite the opposite: he is only helped,” said Vyacheslav Nikonov, a political analyst.

Was this just a less-than-subtle reminder that some of Prokhorov’s recent statements went a little beyond the scope of managed opposition?  If so, he certainly got the message, judging by these comments:

“I publically quit business and headed a political party. I did this according to Russian law,” Prokhorov told Gazeta.ru. “I have not done anything that is forbidden.”

“If Khodorkovsky had acted in the same way, the outcome would have been different. It’s no possible to engage in politics while you are the head of a large company,” he said.

If that were true, Putin, Medvedev, and Sechin would all have to quit along with more than half of United Russia.