Moscow, Russia -  March 18, 2008 - COMSTAR - United TeleSystems (COMSTAR-UTS, LSE: CMST), the leading supplier of integrated telecommunication solutions in Russia and the CIS, announces that its President Sergey Pridantsev has won the Excellence in Business contest in the Top Best Manger nomination.

The contest is held annually as part of the Global project "Russia: New Growth Quality" set up under the aegis of the Federal Council of the Federal Assembly of Russia, among the CEOs of the leading national companies in all significant business areas. The project mission is to foster a rapid economic growth, make national economy more competitive and attractive to investors, ensure business transparency and profitability, support a fair competition in the market of commodities and services, and, inter alias, in the sphere of IT and communications through adoption of higher quality standards and advanced expertise in the field of business management. The Excellence in Business awards are conferred on the top managers for outstanding achievements and, more specifically, for the best performance in such fields as conception and improvement of management systems, strategic and innovative approaches to business management, impressive contribution into effectiveness and competitiveness of theirs respective companies in terms of.

Commenting on the award received, Sergey Pridantsev, President of JSC Comstar-UTS said: "I believe the whole Comstar Group deserves congratulations. This award is a recognition of our team's merits. You can't become the best top manager without a bunch of professionals at your back, well-versed in telecommunications and taking up all challenges posed to them".
At the award ceremony, held at the X International Congress "Management and Quality in the Third Millennium", arranged by NII Interecoms, the leading certification body in Russia, and supported by Administration of the President of Russia, Federal Assembly of Russia, the awards to the winners were handed out by N.F. Pozhitkov, a Member of Federal Council and Chairman of Public Council for the Global project "Russia: New Growth Quality" and ?.R. Petrosyan, deputy chief of Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology and President of International Management and Quality Academy.