July 7, 2009, Moscow. COMSTAR – United TeleSystems (JSC COMSTAR-UTS, LSE: CMST), the leading supplier of integrated telecommunication solutions in Russia and the CIS, announces that Maxim Chernov has been appointed to the position of marketing director.

The marketing director is directly reportable to the Company president. Position of the marketing director was introduced in 2009 to replace a former position of vice-president for marketing occupied by Sergey Nazarov from June 2007. In February 2009, Sergey Nazarov was shifted to position of the OAO MGTS Director General.

“Marketing is one of the key and most important trends of activity for a large company today. There is an opinion that marketing is both the art and science of establishing relations with the customer. Market research, demand analysis, competitive environment evaluation and consumer behaviour assessment – these are critical tasks handled by marketing experts. These are marketing experts who decide, in the long run, what are company services, how much they cost and how they are represented. Maxim Chernov is a professional with extensive experience in telecommunication business. He has a perfect insight of current tasks that the marketing unit and the company on the whole have to face”, – says Dmitry Karmanov, Vice-President for HR Management of JSC COMSTAR-UTS.

Maxim Chernov was born in Kostroma in 1976. Having obtained higher economic education – in 1998, he occupied positions of the senior economist, commercial director and deputy sales director at the production plant. In 2001, he went to work in OAO Elektrosvyaz, Kostroma Region, where he occupied positions of the manager, engineer and head of the marketing department. From 2002 to 2005, he occupied position of the head of the marketing department of Kostorma branch of OAO CenterTelecom. In 2005, he was appointed head of the marketing department of the united Verkhnevolzhsky branch of OAO CenterTelecom incorporated based on 3 branches. In 2006, he went to work in the CenterTelecom general directorate where he occupied position of head of individuals and legal entity relations department. In 2007, he went to work in COMSTAR-UTS to the position of the head of the department of rating policy and promotion of market services to corporate customers. From February to July 2009, he was an acting vice-president for marketing – head of JSC COMSTAR-UTS department.