RUSSIA’S THIRD-RICHEST MAN says he will run for the presidency against Vladimir Putin in three months’ time – the most significant challenge to date against the current prime minister and presidential frontrunner.

BBC News quotes Mikhail Prokhorov – who had also organised a challenge to Putin in this month’s parliamentary elections, only to end up resigning from his party – as saying the campaign was “the most serious decision” he had ever made.

Prokhorov, who made his fortune as a financier before taking a foothold in the precious metals industry, is worth a reputed $18 billion (€13 billion) and is the owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball side.

The magnate was elected to the leadership of the Right Cause party, a pro-business lobby, earlier this year but resigned in September after labelling the party as a “puppet Kremlin party”, and accusing president Dmitry Medvedev of meddling in the party’s plans for the Duma elections.

That party was not an automatic opponent of Putin’s United Russia, or the Kremlin itself, and was likely to offer its endorsement to incumbent president Dmitry Medvedev if he was to be United Russia’s nominee.

Prokhorov will not run for the Right Cause, however – with RIA Novosti saying he will build a new party organisation “from scratch”.

Announcing his candidacy at a news conference, he added that he would not announce details of his policy platform until he formally registered as a candidate – but did say his campaign would not be largely built on criticism of the current administration.

Putin is still heavily favoured to win a third term as President in March’s election, following on from the two terms he served between 2000 and 2008.

This is despite continuing protests over the results of the Duma elections earlier this month, which saw Putin’s party just about hang on to its parliamentary majority despite losing massive chunks of its vote.

Medvedev yesterday took to Facebook to announce an investigation into the allegations of voter fraud in those elections.

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