The Civic Platform party will participate in the Moscow mayoral elections, even if they are postponed to September 2013, the party leader, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov (No. 10 in the ranking of the 200 richest businessmen in Russia , net worth: $13 billion) announced to the press on Tuesday. -release obtained by Forbes.

“The Civic Platform party will in any case participate in the elections if they are postponed to September 2013. I will decide my position after consultations with lawyers and after the elections are called,” Prokhorov said.

At the same time, the politician noted that four months ago the current mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin, who today announced his intention to resign in order to take part in the early elections of the capital's mayor in 2013, said that he did not support the idea of early mayoral elections, explaining this by the fact that , in his opinion, “Muscovites don’t want politics.” “Today he is making a completely opposite statement and this is a blow, first of all, to the interests of Muscovites,” writes Prokhorov.

Prokhorov explains Sobyanin’s decision by “fear of fair elections.” “With his decision, he actually “reset” the previous 2.5 years of his work. This can only indicate that the Moscow administration, headed by the mayor, is not coping with solving the problems of the largest metropolis,” Prokhorov said.

“Major road repairs, solving transport problems, migration policy, crime – these are just some of the problems that the Moscow authorities could not cope with,” the politician said, noting that only the naive would not see Sobyanin’s decision as a trick “to gain time until political opponents did not have time to mobilize and conduct a fleeting campaign themselves in the summer, during the dacha and vacation season.”

According to Prokhorov, Sobyanin’s statement today suggests that the authorities were afraid of the growing popularity of his Civic Platform party, its participation in the Moscow City Duma elections in 2014 and his own participation in the mayoral elections in 2015. “But one thing is obvious: Moscow must have the right to choose a Muscovite candidate who understands the problems of his hometown,” the politician concludes.

After information appeared in the media about Sobyanin’s possible resignation from the post of mayor of Moscow in order to hold early elections for the capital’s mayor in September 2013, oppositionist Alexei Navalny announced his intention to take part in the mayoral elections . On Tuesday, Sobyanin confirmed information about his intention to resign from the post of mayor of Moscow in order to take part in early elections for the mayor of the capital.

Prokhorov's "Civic Platform" will participate in the Moscow mayoral elections