Yabloko, RPR-PARNAS to run for Moscow mayor despite Prokhorov's withdrawal
MOSCOW. June 13 (Interfax) - The leaders of the opposition parties said they had expected Civil Platform leader Mikhail Prokhorov to withdraw from the Moscow mayor election race, adding that this decision did not influence their intention to run in the elections.
"Prokhorov's decision is understandable," Yabloko chairman Sergei Mitrokhin told Interfax.
"The elections are difficult, the filter set by the authorities is difficult to pass. Candidates who are more or less independent are in a difficult situation," Mitrokhin said.
Boris Nemtsov, co-chairman of the party RPR-PARNAS, said Prokhorov's decision was not a surprise to him.
"It was quite expected because you need to be ready for risks if you engage in politics in Russia. If you are not ready to lose everything, you don't engage in politics, you just have fun," Nemtsov said.
At the same time, both politicians said their parties are prepared to continue running. "I believe you should still fight and go till the end. The one who fights until the end wins," Mitrokhin said.
Civil Platform leader Mikhail Prokhorov told a press conference in the Interfax central office earlier on Thursday that neither he nor any other member of his party will run in the Moscow mayor elections.
