Back when Vladimir Putin was put on the cover of Time Magazine, we generally interpreted the publicity as positive despite deep disagreements with his politics. In general, it’s good to see Russians on the covers of American magazines, at the least to spark some interest in a country which has fallen off the table of the popular conscience since the end of the Cold War.
At this point, however, I might be worried for billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, lest Putin become jealous … after his amusing and fluffy feature on 60 Minutes, this week he was featured on the cover of The New York Times Magazine. It turns out that in order to get the media’s attention, you don’t have to run a major country, but rather just buy a failing basketball team.
Does the journalist capture the enigma of Prokhorov, or just lean on a number of entertaining cliches that make up the projection that he has worked so hard to cultivate? Read and decide.