I met Boris Volodarsky, a former member of the Russian Spetnaz in Cambridge, England, July 16, 2010. Boris works now in London, and gives talks on the way Russia functions nowadays, as well as how it worked under the Soviet system. Volodarsky attended the most prestigious economic and language institutes in the Soviet Union. [Shown belowis member of the Spetnaz preparing for an airborne operation.]
According to Volodarsky, even though the KGB was disbanded when the Soviet system collapsed, a shadow KGB still exists, quite strong, in Russia. One needs only to look at the people in charge, especially the Premier, and former President, Vladimir Putin, who was once head of the KGB. Volodarsky said “The KGB is in total control or Russia. All aspects, every business, especially those that make money, are under control of the secret service. The leaders of businesses may make money, but cannot make any decisions without permission of the secret service.”
So recently CBS Sixty Minutes re-ran a program that aired in May, 2010 about the purchase of the New Jersey Nets' (the worst team in professional basketball) by the billionaire Russian, Mikhail Prokhorov . Prokhorov made his money with the overt permission of the Russian government by buying and then selling at a huge profit a manufacturing industry in Russia. He is well known as a playboy, even was arrested in France for allegedly bringing women in with him for the purpose of prostitution. The charges against him were dismissed and French President Nicolas Sarkozy apologized to Russian President Medvedev over the entire incident.
If Volodarsky is correct, then Prokhorov’s riches stem from his approval by the Russian Secret Service, and the decision to buy the Nets had to be one made by the shadow KGB .
No one, especially a foreigner, can buy into the NBA without approval of the league. So what did the league do? NBA commissioner David Stern, always eager to trumpet the game's global expansion, said Nets fans could feel good about Prokhorov.
"I think that any investor who stepped into the opportunity he did would be important and bring excitement, because it's the final step in ensuring that there will be a brand new building in Brooklyn and the Nets will return to New York," said Stern.
But Stern understands why Prokhorov - a playboy who used a recent "60 Minutes" profile to advertise his love of women, yachts, adventure sports and guns - is being seen as a different breed of NBA owner.
"Because he's something of a larger-than-life character, he's generated additional interest," Stern said in an interview with the Daily News. "He's a six-foot-eight basketball player, wealthiest man in Russia, with a smile and fun sense of humor."
"Because he's something of a larger-than-life character, he's generated additional interest," Stern said in an interview with the Daily News. "He's a six-foot-eight basketball player, wealthiest man in Russia, with a smile and fun sense of humor."
By swooping in late last summer to buy one of the worst teams ever (the Nets finished this season with a 12-70 record), and rescuing Bruce Ratner's embatled bid to relocate the team to the controversial Atlantic Yards site in Brooklyn, Prokhorov has managed to generate extraordinary excitement - and suspicion. One congressman is calling for greater scrutiny of Prokhorov's vast investment empire, and neighborhood opponents to the 22-acre Atlantic Yards project may now see a symbolic villian in Prokhorov, whose wealth is largely built on extracting metal from 4,000 feet deep in the Siberian earth and poisoning the environment in the process.
The congressman is not the only one concerned with Prokhorov’s buying in. Rod Thorn's, the president of the Nets, announced his decision to retire as president of the Nets. One can understand why he would like to get out of his relationship with the Nets, and his decision was no doubt hastened by the presence of what he perceived to be Russian spies inside the team's offices.
According to sources close to the team, Thorn had quickly grown tired of having to answer to associates of new Russian owner Mikhail Prokhorov, who took control of the Nets in early May, 2010. After months of dealing with Prokhorov's underlings looking over his shoulder, Thorn decided to walk away. He steps down on July 15, one week after the free agent signing period began.
Before news of his impending retirement broke, Thorn told the New York Daily News that he had no issues with either Prokhorov or his field generals."That's not right," Thorn said. "And I'm really serious, that's not right. The new ownership has been great to me. I think they're going to be the best owners in the league."
One of the most respected executives in the NBA, Thorn is known to be territorial when it comes to decisions that affect the team. He seemed to have at least some of his authority undermined when Prokhorov decided to name Irina Pavlova - the daughter of a Russian diplomat and a former Google executive - as president of the Nets' parent company.
Prokhorov has also made it clear that he will play an active role in recruiting pending free agents such as LeBron James, who was rumored to be giving the Nets the first crack at romancing him when free agency began. It must have caused tidal-wave repercussions in Prokhorov’s staff when James went to Miami and not to the Nets. Maybe James was big enough that they could not make him an offer “he could not refuse.”
So, if Boris Volodarsky is to be believed, the Russian secret service now has a fully legal operation ensconced in the head offices of the Nets. Time will tell what effect this may have.
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