Russian retired heavyweight boxer Nikolai Valuev, who was elected a parliament deputy from the ruling United Russia party in December, spoke on his new job in an interview with the Izvestiya daily.
Asked whether it was hard for him to adapt to his new job, Valuev said: “Probably most sportsmen cannot quickly adapt to this work, but I seem to be of a different breed.”
“Moreover, it is all just interesting to me. I want to deal with these things more and more… Even when I went in for sports, the intellectual part of it was more interesting to me than the blunt physical part,” he said.
“The Beast from the East,” who is 213 cm (7 ft) high tall and weighs about 140kg (308 pounds), had asked that his chair in the lower house of parliament be adjusted to fit his size.
Valuev is one of several sports personalities to have recently taken up politics. Former world tennis No. 1 Marat Safin is a lawmaker with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, as is former rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabaeva.
"The Russian giant" was appointed general manager of the national bandy team to promote a sport he enjoyed in his youth in November 2011.
