The owner of the New Jersey Nets may have more than Deron Williams’ looming free agency and the team’s impending move to Brooklyn on his mind after Sunday, but probably not. Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, along with three other challengers, is running for the Russian Presidency against Vladimir Putin, the nation’s well established incumbent.

Last year, Prokhorov and his allies in the political party Just Cause were expelled from the Russian inner-circle because they opposed Putin's switching of positions with former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.   

Prokhorov, 46, is said to have a net worth of $18 billion and has been a frequent critic of the Kremlin. 

“The risk is very simple, Vladimir Putin is for stabilization, but this means the stabilization of poverty and lagging behind,” said Prokhorov at a press conference earlier this week.

Most Russian political observers believe the election is a sham and that Putin will find his way back into office, no matter the actual results of the vote.

Despite Prokhorov’s low probability of winning the “electoral” contest, the 6-8 industrialist hopes that his involvement in the race will lay the groundwork for a more prominent role in Russian politics in the years to come.

Meanwhile, the Nets are staggering along at 12-26, entering Tuesday night’s game versus the Heat.

Update

Putin was declared the winner of the Russian election, after garnering a reported 59 percent of the vote. As expected, rumors of fraud and ballot stuffing are running rampant throughout the country at the present time.