Moscow, Russia – February 28, 2008 – “COMSTAR – United TeleSystems” JSC (“Comstar” or “the Company”) (LSE: CMST), the leading combined telecommunications operator in Russia and the CIS, today announced that it has completed building its inter-city and international network. The total volume of capital investments in the project amounted to approximately US$ 14 million. Comstar applied to the Ministry for Information Technologies and Communications of the Russian Federation to receive access codes for providing long distance services.

The project involved the organization of points of presence in all Russian subjects and installation of seven inter-city transit connection nodes in all federal districts of Russia, as well as four international connection nodes. Comstar has also signed interconnect agreements with all Russian zonal operators as well as international providers. All the Company’s nodes and points of presence are connected with the channels, including the rented ones.

Comstar built the network according to practices and codes adopted by the telecommunications industry. Comstar’s local and international network is based on NGN technology used for providing voice services and new multi-media solutions. The NGN network runs on Nortel switches and media gateways. The universal platform allows for centralized management of the whole network and deployment of new services in the shortest possible time.

Comstar’s long distance network will be used for transmission of the Company’s own traffic and provision of inter-city and international connection services to Comstar’s subscribers.

Sergey Pridantsev, President and Chief Executive Officer of Comstar UTS, commented: “Upon the receipt of the access codes, Comstar will be able to provide integrated telecommunications services in one package which serves as an additional competitive advantage for us as a universal telecommunications operator, as well as a necessary condition for a successful and large scale regional development. Our clients will benefit from an integrated service offering, unified billing, attractive tariffs and convenient payment options. We are confident that this will help us increase our subscribers’ loyalty.”