January 12, 2010, Moscow. COMSTAR – United TeleSystems (COMSTAR-UTS, LSE: CMST), the leading supplier of integrated telecommunication solutions in Russia and the CIS, announces that at its meeting on December 28, 2009, the Board of Directors approved Nikolay Naumovich to the position of the Vice-President for Corporate Management and Legal Matters of COMSTAR-UTS.

Nikolay Naumovich has been appointed to this position by the decree of the President of COMSTAR-UTS Group and he assumed his office on December 28, 2009. Previously, this position was occupied by Kirill Andreychenko who on November 18, 2009 transferred to ANK Bashneft, which is also a part of AFK Sistema.

Nikolay Naumovich will take charge of matters related to corporate restructuring, merger and acquisition transactions, company property management and he will also monitor all legal issues of COMSTAR-UTS Group.

"COMSTAR-UTS Group is now undergoing some significant changes related to corporate management, including as a result of integration with Mobile TeleSystems. We continue the process of Group restructuring and we aim to create a single powerful company to become a leader of the Russian regional telecom market. We are carrying out integration with the principal shareholder of MTS. Nikolay Naumovich is facing challenges requiring discharge of all corporate management and legal obligations that the company has before its shareholders, investors and other stakeholders. I am well confident that his experience and perfect insight into the company will help us settle these issues with utmost efficiency," Sergey Pridantsev, President of COMSTAR-United TeleSystems, says.

Nikolay Naumovich was born in 1978. He graduated with honors from the foreign affairs faculty and legal faculty of the Saint-Petersburg State University. In 2002, he graduated from the legal faculty of the Oxford University (Great Britain) and was conferred the degree of the Master of European Law (LL.M.). From 2002 to 2007, he worked as a lawyer at the representative office of Baker & McKenzie – CIS, Limited, an international law firm, headquarters of the World Bank Group in Washington, US, and representative office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, an international law firm. In 2007, he was transferred to the position of the director of the legal department at Sistema Telecom, following which, in 2007, he occupied the position of the director of the legal matters department at COMSTAR-UTS. In December 2009, he was appointed Vice-President for Corporate Management and Legal Matters of COMSTAR-UTS.