Is Prokhorov Serious Enough to Dethrone Putin?

He will now run as an independent, determined that he can garner the required number of signatures legally needed to do so in time to campaign.

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"You may remember, the Kremlin removed me and my allies from Right Cause, and we were not allowed to do what we wanted," he stated, according to the New York Times.

"It is not in my nature to stop halfway. So for the last two and a half months we sat and worked, very calmly and quietly, and we created all the infrastructure to collect two million signatures."

Prokhorov's vocal condemnation of Putin could 'net' him some significant votes. Russians seem to finally be tired of Putin's near-autocratic control over the last decade of Russian politics. Last week, Putin's United Russia party lost a significant number of parliamentary seats after the national elections, and while it is still has the majority, United Russia no longer has its two-thirds majority, which had given the party uncontested power to change the constitution.

Additionally, allegations of ballot-stuffing and voter fraud sparked a week of protests against Putin's reign. Videos of pollsters filling out blank voting cards and of local election officials vocally supporting support for United Russia made their way online, and have outraged many voters.

As a result, tens of thousands of people have gathered in Moscow and other cities in  the largest protests in the post-Soviet era to demand Putin's resignation. President Dmitri Medvedev said that an investigation into the fraud accusations will be opened, but no one is satisfied that a government-run inquiry will yield accurate results.

2012

Aside from Prokhorov, Putin will face off against the Communist Party's Gennady Zyugan, left-wing economist Grigory Yavlinsky and upper-house chairman Sergey Mironov in next year's presidential elections.

Putin has beaten all three in the past, and Prokhorov's freshness could invigorate a frustrated public. Some compare him to Barack Obama, who was able to succeed on a national level in 2008, although the comparison is more one based in hope than based in reality.

And despite his youth and desire to end Putin's puppet-mastery, he is really more Herman Cain than Obama -- a private sector, free market stalwart with little experience but a wealth of enthusiasm.