As is all too often the case in the sphere of Russian politics, in order to understand the reality of seemingly organic shifts in the political landscape we must scrutinize its seamy side, which is mapped out in the shadowy corridors of the Kremlin.  Take Mikhail Prokhorov’s announcement yesterday that he would be running for President.  Stooge! promptly cried a chorus of opposition voices, who suggested his decision was a Kremlin-backed attempt to glean protest votes and reinforce the legitimacy of the presidential elections.  But has the tycoon smoothed things over with ‘puppet master’ Vladislav Surkov, at whom he directed verbal daggers a few months back following the Right Cause debacle?  Time’s Simon Shuster, who has today published an article on the subject, suggests this may well be the case: