Moscow, Russian Federation – Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (“MTS” or “the Company” – NYSE: MBT), the leading telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS, announces it has been named as one of the BRANDZ™ Top 100 Most Powerful Brands, a ranking published by the Financial Times and Millward Brown Optimor, a leading global market research and consulting firm. In 2013, MTS’s brand has been ranked as the most valuable telecom brand in Russia and one of the top-10 telecom brands globally. MTS’s brand rose to the 83rd position, which represents an increase of its brand value by 11% to $10.63 billion.

In 2013, MTS improved its position by two points and for the first time was ranked in the top-10 global telecom brands. In 2008, MTS was the first Russian company to enter the BRANDZ™ ranking. Sberbank is the only other Russian brand for the third year in a row featured in BRANDZ™ ranking.

Vasyl Latsanych, MTS Vice President for Marketing, commented, “We are pleased that power and dynamics of the MTS brand is again being recognized in one of the most prestigious global rankings. We believe that our ability to anticipate the needs of our customers directly translated into added brand value. Our focus on promoting mobile Internet usage from smartphones necessitated innovative and pioneering solutions, such as the launch of MTS-branded smartphones priced below $100 and combined offers with premium handset vendors to provide free Internet with smartphones purchased at MTS retail outlets. Most recently, MTS was the first telecom provider in Russia to introduce bundled tariff plans offering free voice services to customers using Internet tariffs. In 2012, our efforts to promote mobile Internet usage translated into a 34% data traffic revenue growth, boosting our financial performance as well as the appeal of our brand.”