13 March 2009, Moscow, Saratov. COMSTAR – United TeleSystems (COMSTAR-UTS OJSC, LSE: CMST), a major operator of integrated telecommunications services in Russia and the CIS, announces the appointment of Ivan Gavriletsky to the position of General Director of KASKAD-TV (part of COMSTAR – UTS- owned STREAM-TV Group), a leading pay-TV service operator in the Saratov Region.

The appointment was approved by the resolution of KASKAD-TV CJSC Board of Directors 5 March 2009. Ivan Gavriletsky’s position of GD of KASKAD-TV CJSC, in which he succeeded Artur Laktyukhin, will overlap the position of Director of COMSTAR-UTS OJSC Saratov Branch.

“The new professional appointment is an important step as part of implementation of the declared strategy for restructuring of our regional business,” said Viktor Koresh, Vice President for Regional Development, COMSTAR-UTS OJSC/General Director, STREAM-TV CJSC. “Ivan Gavriletsky faces a challenging task of establishing a single center to manage the assets in the Povolzhye macroregion, reorganizing STREAM-TV’s operating structures and integrating them in COMSTAR-UTS’s corporate structure. I. Gavriletsky proved his worth as an experienced and professional manager; he has successfully seen through the process of integrating several subsidiary enterprises into the COMSTAR-UTS Branch. We rely on his vast expertise in the telecom field and his knowledge of the Povolzhye telecommunications market specific features to achieve all of the set objectives.”

Ivan Gavriletsky was born in 1952. In 1974 he graduated from the Novocherkassk Higher Military Command School of Signal Communications with the qualification “Army Signal Officer/Engineer - Telecommunication Facilities Operation”. From 1969 to 1991, he served in the Armed Forces of the USSR.

I. Gavriletsky started his career in the communications industry in 1992. He worked as an engineer, the Head of an Exchange Line/Cabling Section. In 1999, he moved to VolgaTelecom OJSC to the position of Technical Director of the Saratov branch of that multiregional telecommunications company. From 2006 to 2007 he worked in the capacity of Deputy General Director/Director of the VolgaTelecom OJSC Ulyanovsk branch.

In July 2008, Ivan Gavriletsky took charge of Konversiya-Svyaz CJSC, a COMSTAR-UTS OJSC subsidiary in the Saratov Region. Following the affiliation of Konversiya-Svyaz CJSC to COMSTAR-UTS OJSC in August 2008, he took up the post of Director of  COMSTAR-UTS Saratov Branch.

Strategic Plan for development of COMSTAR-UTS Group’s business in the regions provides for founding COMSTAR-Regions CJSC, a 100% subsidiary company of COMSTAR-UTS OJSC, in 1H2009, to which COMSTAR-UTS’ subsidiary companies in the regions and STREAM-TV Group’s companies will be affiliated by the end of 2009. It is planned that six major branches will be formed through the integrated regional assets across the federal districts of the RF.