Comstar Appoints Irina Matveeva as Chief Financial Officer.

MOSCOW -- "COMSTAR - United TeleSystems" JSC ("Comstar" or "the Company") (LSE:CMST), the leading combined telecommunications operator in Russia and the CIS, today announced the appointment of Irina Matveeva as Chief Financial Officer, with immediate effect. This appointment was approved by the Company's Board of Directors on October 5, 2007. Ms. Matveeva previously held the position of Chief Financial Officer at Moscow City Telephone Network (MGTS). Irina Matveeva replaces Nikolay Tokarev, who has served as Chief Financial Officer since May 2006 and has left the Company to pursue a different career, including the development of his own investment projects.

Sergey Pridantsev, President and CEO of Comstar, commented: "We would like to thank Nikolay Tokarev for the part that he has played in the transformation of Comstar into a public multi-service telecommunications group. Nikolay streamlined the Group finance department, strengthened communications with the investment community and successfully arranged external financing. The Company has increased its efficiency levels and is ready to move to the next phase of development. Ms. Matveeva has an established track record at Comstar and MGTS and the resulting knowledge of our business is essential to her new role. Irina will be responsible for integrating the finance functions of the Comstar Group of companies and coordinating their activities, according to the role of each operating company, with the objective of increasing Group shareholder value."

Irina Matveeva has served as CFO of MGTS since July 2006, prior to which she was Director for Financial Planning of Comstar for two years from 2004 and worked at MTU-Inform, a subsidiary of Comstar, in various roles over nine years. Irina holds a degree in Economics from the Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics, as well as an MBA from the University of Antwerp.

For further information, please visit www.comstar-uts.com.

Comstar UTS is the leading fixed-line telecommunications company in Moscow, both in terms of revenues and subscribers. Comstar UTS provides voice, data, Internet, pay-TV and other value-added services to residential and corporate subscribers and operators, using its extensive backbone network and exclusive last mile access to 98% of Moscow households. The Company also offers communications services in five Russian regions and certain CIS countries. Comstar had 3.6 million residential subscribers in Moscow, 426,400 broadband internet subscribers in Moscow, 108,700 corporate subscribers in Moscow, and approximately 92,000 regional and international subscribers, as at June 30, 2007. Comstar UTS reported operating revenues of US$ 708.0 million and a 43% OIBDA margin for the six months ended June 30, 2007. Comstar GDRs are listed under the symbol "CMST" on the London Stock Exchange.

Some of the information in this press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of Comstar UTS. You can identify forward looking statements by terms such as "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "will," "could," "may" or "might", the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. Comstar UTS wishes to caution that these statements are only predictions, and that actual events or results may differ materially. Comstar UTS does not intend to update these statements to reflect events and circumstances occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Many factors could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in projections or forward-looking statements of Comstar UTS, including, among others, general economic conditions, the competitive environment, risks associated with operating in Russia, rapid technological and market change in the industries Comstar UTS operates in, as well as many other risks specifically related to Comstar UTS and its operations.