Billionaire presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov said on Wednesday that if he wins the March election he will not keep Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in his cabinet.
“I want to bring in new faces,” said Prokhorov, who is seen by some as a Kremlin project in the March 4 election.
Vladimir Putin has been in power for 12 years, he said, adding that “that’s enough; other people should have an opportunity to work.”
Prokhorov, whose approval ratings are in the low single digits, previously said he would offer the post of prime minister to former finance minister Alexei Kudrin or jailed Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
The billionaire is one of five campaign hopefuls. The four other registered candidates are Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, moderate social democratic leader Sergei Mironov, populist firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky and communist leader Gennady Zyuganov.
