Moscow, Russia – [December 4, 2009] – “COMSTAR – United TeleSystems” JSC (“Comstar” or “the Group”) (LSE: CMST), the largest integrated telecommunications provider in Moscow and 69 Russian cities, today announced that a new Board of Directors was elected by the Extraordinary General Meeting of its Shareholders held on December 4, 2009.

The shareholders approved the election of a new Board of Directors with the following members:

1. Ulf Backmeyer, Deputy Director of Finance at Mobile TeleSystems

2. Mikhail Gerchuk, Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Mobile TeleSystems

3. Michael Hecker, Vice President for Strategy and Corporate Development at Mobile TeleSystems

4. Thomas Holtrop, Supervisory Board member at Gruner + Jahr, and an Independent Director of Comstar-UTS

5. Konstantin Markov, Director of Mobile TeleSystems' "Moscow" macro-region

6. Sergey Pridantsev, President of Comstar-UTS

7. Yngve Redling, Chairman of the Swedish Russia & CIS Chamber of Commerce, and an Independent Director of Comstar-UTS

8. Mikhail Shamolin, President of Mobile TeleSystems

9. Tomas Winkler, Vice President of AFK Sistema's Telecommunications business unit

Sergey Pridantsev, President and Chief Executive Officer of Comstar-UTS, commented: “The new Board of Directors reflects the recent changes in the composition of the Comstar shareholder base. The Group is in the process of integrating its operations with MTS and the new Board of Directors will work on the key issues associated with this process. Our two independent non-executive directors have been re-elected to the Board, in line with stock exchanges’ listing requirements for shares and global depositary receipts and Comstar's commitment to maintain a high level of corporate governance”.

OAO Mobile TeleSystems owns 50.91% of OAO Comstar-UTS following the completion of the acquisition of the controlling stake from AFK Sistema on October 12, 2009. Comstar-UTS Global Depositary Receipts are listed on the London Stock Exchange and represent 35% of the total outstanding number of Comstar-UTS shares.