Comstar Commences Operations of St Petersburg Branch.

MOSCOW -- "COMSTAR - United TeleSystems" JSC ("Comstar") (LSE:CMST), the leading combined telecommunications operator in Russia and the CIS, today announced that it has opened its branch in St Petersburg and appointed Tatyana Pasynkova as General Director of the new branch. Prior to joining Comstar, Tatyana Pasynkova was Deputy Director for Regional Development of CJSC PeterStar, which is one of the leading alternative fixed-line telecommunications operators in St Petersburg.

Victor Koresh, Vice President for Regional Development of Comstar-UTS, commented: "Expanding Comstar's presence in St Petersburg has always been one of our main goals and a key part of our strategy. The opening of the branch in St Petersburg will strengthen our presence in the region and help us to optimize the Group structure in order to streamline its business processes. The infrastructure of the branch is in place - we have received all the required licenses and completed the first stage of creating the technology platform based on the network of Astelit, an alternative fixed-line telecommunications company, which we acquired in June 2006."

Tatyana Pasynkova added: "The initial stage of our activities will include the integration of Astelit under the new branch operations and the construction of NGN-based infrastructure. We will focus on providing services to corporate clients which are present in Moscow and St Petersburg, as well as expanding our offering for existing Astelit's clients - business centres and foreign embassies."

Tatyana Pasynkova was born on April 14, 1966, in Leningrad, Russia. From 2004 to 2007, Ms. Pasynkova served as Deputy Director for Regional Development of CJSC PeterStar. From 1993 to 2004, she worked for "Baltic Communications" (BCL) where she held a number of positions in customer services and sales, including Deputy General Director for Commercial Activities. Ms. Pasynkova graduated from Herzen State Pedagogical University in St Petersburg and finished a training course in Efficient Management at Ashridge Business School, United Kingdom.

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

Comstar UTS is the leading integrated 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 CIS. Comstar had 3.6 million residential subscribers in Moscow including 398,000 broadband internet subscribers, almost 105,600 corporate subscribers in Moscow, and approximately 90,100 regional and international subscribers, as at March 31, 2007. Comstar UTS reported increased operating revenues of US$ 329 million and consolidated assets of US$ 3.67 billion for the three months ended March 31, 2007. Comstar 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.