Mikhail Prokhorov

Mikhail Dmitrievich Prokhorov (; born 3 May 1965) is a Russian-Israeli oligarch, politician, and former owner of the Brooklyn Nets. In April 2022, Prokhorov reportedly obtained Israeli citizenship. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Prokhorov obtained Russian state-owned metals assets at prices far below market value in Russia's controversial loans-for-shares privatization program. His company, Norilsk Nickel, became the world's largest producer of nickel and palladium. He is the former chairman of Polyus Gold, Russia's largest gold producer, and the former President of Onexim Group. As of December 1, 2021, Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates his wealth at US$14.0 billion and has named him the 148th richest person in the world, while Forbes Magazine lists his wealth at US$11.5 billion and the 193rd richest person in the world. In 2011, Prokhorov ran as an independent candidate in the 2012 Russian presidential election. He was third in voting, amassing 7.94 percent of the total vote. In June 2012, he declared the establishment of the new Russian political party called Civic Platform. Early life Prokhorov was born in Moscow to Tamara and Dmitri Prokhorov. On his paternal side his grandparents were Russians, relatively wealthy peasant farmers (known as kulaks) who were persecuted as class enemies under the Bolsheviks and again under Stalin. His father, one of eight children, grew up poor, after his family "lost everything and was forced to flee from one part of Siberia and restart life in another". He has one sibling, an elder sister, Irina. On his maternal side his grandfather was Russian, and his grandmother Anna Belkina, was a Jewish microbiologist who remained in Moscow during World War II to make vaccines while her daughter Tamara was moved east to safety.