Meet Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia’s richest man. He’s now set to buy 80% of the New Jersey Nets and 45% of their planned arena on the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic, with an option to buy as much as 20% of the surrounding Atlantic Yards project. Which had previously been floundering, with no plan in place for the neighborhood-obliterating development, because of the departure of original architect Frank Gehry and the drying-up of funding. The above-linked Observer article does a good job of summarizing the implications here; meanwhile, we’re going to hope that virulent nationalism and vague subliminal ethnic prejudice works to sway public sentiment against the project, if that’s what it takes.