Former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov has turned down the chance to head the board at the United Petrochemical Company, or UPC, and will instead take up sheep farming in the Kaliningrad region, a news report said Monday.
A source familiar with Luzhkov's plans told RBK daily on Monday that the ex-city boss had already rented 5,000 hectares of land in the Kaliningrad exclave and planned to rear 5,000 head of sheep.
Monday's announcement comes after Luzhkov told Moskovsky Komsomolets on June 28 that he had accepted the offer to chair UPC's board.
According to RBK daily sources, the deal fell through because Luzhkov could not agree on terms with Vladimir Yevtushenkov, the petrochemical company's main shareholder and a friend of the ex-mayor since the 1990s.
"Luzhkov didn't reach a mutual understanding with Yevtushenkov on the development strategy for the company," the source said.
Luzhkov's sheep business would not be his first foray into agriculture.
Luzhkov, who was fired from his post by former President Dmitry Medvedev in 2010, also owns a stud farm in the Kaliningrad region.
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