1 December 2008, Moscow: Comstar – United TeleSystems (COMSTAR-UTS, LSE: CMST), the leading provider of integrated telecommunication solutions in Russia and the CIS, announced that its Board of Directors had approved the first non-audited social report of the Group for 2007. COMSTAR-UTS has become the first telecommunication company in Russia to publish a social report.

The social report of COMSTAR-UTS covers the Group’s activities related to social responsibility support and development for the period from late 2006 till early 2008. Although the Group has a long-term experience in social sector, this report is the first public document of COMSTAR-UTS to consolidate social activities of all members of the Group. The social report of COMSTAR-UTS is intended for all parties that are interested in Company's business development: stakeholders and investors, personnel, state, customers, partners, business community and mass media. The Company aspires to balance interests of all stakeholders.

The social report of COMSTAR-UTS is based on best global practices in non-financial reporting. Currently the report is being registered at CorporateRegister.com where you can find reports provided by such telecom corporations as Vodafone, British Telecom, Telefonica SA, etc. By now CorporateRegister.com has over 18,800 reports issued by 4,700 companies all over the world. Besides, COMSTAR-UTS’ social report is registered in the National Register of Corporate Non-Financial Reports administered by the Russian Industrial and Business Union.

According to RSPP, by now about 64 companies have published non-financial (social) reports and none of them provides communication services. So, COMSTAR-UTS is the first telecom operator in Russia that has presented a social report. The Company is going to issue such non-financial reports annually.

Also, COMSTAR-UTS is developing Corporate Social Responsibility Policy which is expected to have been reviewed by the Board of Directors by the end of this year.

Vitaly Saveliev, Senior Vice President of AFK Sistema and Chairman of COMSTAR-UTS’ Board of Directors, says, "We highly estimate efforts of our parent companies focused at corporate social responsibility development. Today, all large companies are starting to consider social responsibility issues. Social reporting can influence enterprise capitalization and its reputation among investors as well as eliminate some corporate risks."

Sergey Pridantsev, President of COMSTAR-UTS, adds, "COMSTAR-UTS considers social responsibility as company’s voluntary contribution to improving quality of live of society and all stakeholders depending on the company’s activity. In our case this is telecom and Internet services. Global practice shows that corporate social responsibility is developed by companies that have already achieved some business success and recognized the need to take care of the present and future of our world. We believe that we have evolved to this point. Preparing and issuing the pilot social report is our firs step towards annual non-financial reporting system."

The social report of COMSTAR-UTS is available at Company’s corporate site: https://www.comstar-uts.ru/en/about/socialreport/.