OREANDA-NEWS. February 18, 2008. Open Joint Stock Company “Vimpel-Communications” (“VimpelCom”) (NYSE: VIP), today announced the success of the tender offer by its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, Lillian Acquisition, Inc. (“Lillian Acquisition”), for any and all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Golden Telecom, Inc. (“Golden Telecom”) (NASDAQ: GLDN) at a purchase price of $105.00 per share in cash. Based on preliminary information from the depositary for the offer, as of the expiration of the offer at midnight on February 15, 2008, stockholders had tendered and not withdrawn 36,533,255 shares of Golden Telecom common stock (including 1,239,567 shares delivered through notices of guaranteed delivery), representing approximately 90.5% of the outstanding shares of Golden Telecom's common stock.

“We are very pleased that the overwhelming majority of Golden Telecom's stockholders have found this offer to be compelling," Mr. Alexander Izosimov, the Chief Executive of VimpelCom, said. "The transaction truly transforms VimpelCom into a leading integrated telecom operator in Russia and the CIS with established positions in rapidly growing broadband, data and mobile markets. We are looking forward to growing the combined business together with the management of Golden Telecom and to benefiting from our respective expertise and strengths. Indeed, we have already started planning our integration activities and are confident of realizing significant additional value for our shareholders.”

Lillian Acquisition has accepted for payment all shares of Golden Telecom common stock that were validly tendered during the initial offering period and will make payment to the depositary for the accepted shares promptly.

In addition, VimpelCom announced that Lillian Acquisition has elected to provide a subsequent offering period for all remaining shares of Golden Telecom common stock to permit stockholders who have not yet tendered their shares, due to technical difficulties in the tendering process or otherwise, the opportunity to do so.  This subsequent offering period will commence immediately and will expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on Tuesday, February 26, 2008.  All shares of Golden Telecom common stock properly tendered during the subsequent offering period will be accepted, and tendering stockholders will receive the same price of $105.00 per share in cash.  No shares of Golden Telecom common stock tendered during the initial offering period or the subsequent offering period may be withdrawn.

Following the subsequent offering period, VimpelCom Finance B.V., a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of VimpelCom, and Lillian Acquisition intend to effect a merger of Lillian Acquisition into Golden Telecom. In connection with the merger, all remaining Golden Telecom stockholders who did not tender their shares in the tender offer (other than those, if any, properly perfecting dissenters’ rights) will receive the same $105.00 per share in cash paid in the tender offer.