Former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov will join the board of directors of the United Petrochemical Company, which is 75 percent owned by businessman and longtime friend of Luzhkov Vladimir Yevtushenkov.
"I agreed long ago to become a member of the board and have handed over the necessary documents," the 74-year-old Luzhkov told Moskovsky Komsomolets. He added that he had been offered to chair the board, though he had not made a decision on whether he would accept.
Luzhkov was voted onto the board at a June 26 shareholder meeting, which Luzhkov said he did not attend because he was attending graduation day ceremonies at the International University in Moscow where he has worked since being fired from City Hall.
United Petrochemical Company is a joint venture controlled by AFK Sistema, Bashneft and Petrochemical Holding GmbH.
The former mayor said in March that AFK Sistema head Yevtushkenov had made a job offer, without giving any details. An unnamed source told Interfax that Luzhkov, who worked in the Soviet chemical industry for three decades, could become the head of Sistema's petrochemicals division.
Yevtushenkov has been a close friend of Luzhkov since at least the early 1990s. Yevtushenkov said last year that he had offered Luzhkov a position at Sistema, whose holdings include oil major Bashneft and telecommunications giant Mobile TeleSystems, or MTS, but Luzhkov refused.
Luzhkov served as the city's top official from 1992 to 2010. He was fired from his post by President Dmitry Medvedev in September 2010 after a series of disputes between the two.
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