On July 16, 2003, the Board of Directors of Z?? Sistema Telecom approved Vladimir Lagutin for the office of General Director. Vladimir Lagutin, who is currently General Director of ??? MGTS, is to assume his new office on July 23, 2003. “To my mind,” says Vladimir Lagutin, “the main challenges facing the Sistema Telecom management company today are consolidating the business of the subsidiaries making up the group, sharpening their competitive edge in the telecommunications market, and optimizing the business processes, and besides promoting regional projects, not least those out of Russia.”

Vladimir Lagutin was born in Moscow on April 7, 1947. Graduate of the National Institute of Electrical Engineering Communications. Has been with the Moscow City Telephone Network since 1967, rising up the career ladder through a succession of engineering and administrative positions, including deputy general director for economics. In 1994, he was appointed General Director of OAO MGTS. Led by Vladimir Lagutin, ??? MGTS has scored impressive results in the new free-market conditions and effected a transition to an entirely new type of business management, combining the company’s economic and technological growth targets and social mission. Vladimir Lagutin has a doctorate in engineering, and is a professor and full member of the International Communications Academy and International Information Technology Academy. He holds the City Telephone Network Control Systems chair at the Moscow Technological University of Communications and Information Technology. He has more than a hundred papers in print, including four monographs. Awarded Labor Excellence and Labor Veteran medals, the Order of the Badge of Honor and several other orders, and also an honorary title Merited Communications Worker of the RF for his long distinguished service in the nation’s communications industry.

Z?? Sistema Telecom was established on July 1, 1998, as a JSFC Sistema subsidiary to manage the holding company’s telecommunications assets. The group of Sistema Telecom companies today is the largest private business active in the Russian telecommunications market. It has control over 50 communications operators in all major segments of the telecommunications market, such as fixed and mobile telephony, the Internet and data transfer, traffic transit, tracking, paging, and so on.

For more details, contact:

Elena Sanarova, Public Relations Director, Z?? Sistema Telecom Tel: (095) 105-74-10 E-mail: sanarova@sistel.ru