Prokhorov is Russian party pooper

The Russian government accomplished what Garden boss James Dolan couldn't: pressuring Mikhail Prokhorov out of its territory.

Just three months after Prokhorov was introduced as the leader of a fledgling Russian political party, Right Cause, the billionaire Nets owner has abandoned his position while accusing the Kremlin of sabotaging his aspirations.

According to reports, the Kremlin felt Prokhorov was getting too ambitious and infiltrated his pro-business party with "fake" candidates. Prokhorov didn't like that.

In a meeting Thursday with his followers, Prokhorov said his party was "bought by the Kremlin" and then insulted a Kremlin political strategist, Vladislav Surkov - a bold tactic considering the last tycoon who got involved in Russian politics and criticized the system, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, sits in prison.

"There is a puppeteer in the country who long ago privatized the political system and who has long misinformed the country's leadership," Prokhorov said about Surkov, although he stopped short of criticizing Russia's bigwigs, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev.

As long as Prokhorov, 46, stays out of prison, his departure from politics theoretically frees up more time for him to focus on the Nets - a $200 million investment he has largely ignored this offseason. Prokhorov didn't attend a home game after January last season, and hasn't sat through any of the post-lockout CBA meetings. On Tuesday, coach Avery Johnson - who recently was in Moscow to teach and promote basketball - said Prokhorov's political ambitions will cause "a shifting" of the organization. But that was before Prokhorov pulled away.

"I got a sense from (Prokhorov) that he's still just committed to Nets basketball and obviously he's put himself out there in terms of (predicting a championship by 2015). He's still behind that. He understands it's a process," Johnson said. "At the same time, I think there was a window of opportunity for him to do what he's doing now and get into the political realm and things he shared with me that he's really convicted about and convicted about how he wants certain things changed about how things are done politically there."

It is unclear how Prokhorov's political dabblings will affect his enormous wealth, reported between $14 billion and $23 billion. He recently resigned as president of two companies - investment group Onexim and Polyus Gold, Russia's largest producer of gold - saying he wants to concentrate on politics.

Prokhorov may also encounter new obstacles with his current businesses, courtesy of the Kremlin.

- With the Associated Press