Comstar Appoints Nikolay Tokarev as Interim CEO.

MOSCOW -- "COMSTAR - United TeleSystems" JSC ("Comstar UTS") (LSE:CMST), the leading combined telecommunications operator in Russia and the CIS, today announced that its regular meeting of the Board of Directors, which was held on May 16, 2007, accepted the resignation of Eric Franke as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company.

The Board of Directors satisfied Mr. Franke's request to be released from his employment contract with Comstar UTS in order to take up a position with another business. The Board of Directors has appointed Nikolay Tokarev as interim President and CEO of Comstar-UTS with immediate effect. Mr Tokarev will hold this position until a permanent President and CEO is appointed.

Sergey Schebetov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Comstar UTS, commented: "Eric Franke has implemented several large scale projects during his time at Comstar. He created the corporate centre, built a strong operational management team, started the legal merger of a number of our operating companies and launched a cost optimization programme. Mr. Franke was very successful in establishing effective relations with the international investment community. We want to thank Eric for his contribution to the development of Comstar UTS".

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

Comstar UTS is the leading combined telecommunications operator in Moscow and the Moscow region, 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 unique last mile access to 98% of Moscow households. The Company also offers communications services in several Russian regions, and CIS and Eastern European countries. Comstar UTS had 3.6 million traditional fixed-line subscribers, over 500,000 alternative operator segment subscribers in Moscow, and almost 100,000 alternative segment subscribers in the Russian regions outside Moscow, as at December 31, 2006. Comstar UTS reported operating revenues of US$ 1.12 billion for the twelve months ended December 31, 2006, and had consolidated assets totalling US$ 3.54 billion as at the end of the period. Comstar UTS securities are listed under the symbol "CMST" on the Moscow Stock Exchange and 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