OREANDA-NEWS. On 07 July 2009 “COMSTAR – United TeleSystems” JSC (“Comstar” or “the Group”) (LSE: CMST), the largest integrated telecommunications provider in Moscow and 69 Russian cities, announced the decisions made at the Annual General Meeting of its shareholders (“AGM”) on June 30, 2009.

The AGM approved an annual dividend of approximately RUR 90.3 million, or approximately USD  2.9  million, for the twelve months ended December 31, 2008, to be paid to holders of Comstar’s shares as at the record date of May 22, 2009.  The dividend represents approximately 2% of Comstar’s consolidated net income for 2008 under US GAAP . The dividend, which amounts to a payment of RUR 0.22 per ordinary share, or approximately USD  0.007 per Global Depositary Receipt (“GDR”), is due to be paid within 60 days of today’s AGM approval.

The shareholders also approved the election of the members of the Board of Directors as follows:

1.    Anton Abugov – First Vice President, Head of Strategy and Development Functional Division, Sistema;

2.    Sergey Drozdov – Senior Vice President, Head of Property Functional Division, Sistema;

3.    Anna Goldin – Vice President, Head of Legal Functional Division, Sistema;

4.    Thomas Holtrop – Member of the Board of Directors, Gruner and Jahr;

5.    Sergey Ivanov – Director of Strategy Department of Telecommunications Business Unit, Sistema;

6.    Sergey Pridantsev – President and Chief Executive Officer, Comstar;

7.    Yngve Redling – Chairman of the Swedish-Russian bilateral working group for Information Technology; Chairman, Swedish-Russian/ CIS Chamber of Commerce;

8.    Ron Sommer – Member of the Board of Directors, First Vice President, Head of Telecommunications Business Unit, Sistema;

9.    Dmitry Ustinov – Head of Financial Department of Finance and Investments Division, Sistema

At the statutory Board meeting following the AGM, the Comstar Board of Directors appointed Mr. Sommer as Chairman.

In addition, the AGM approved Comstar’s Annual Report and the annual financial statements for the financial year ended December 31, 2008, including the Income Statement (P&L Accounts) of Comstar for 2008, and elected the Audit Committee of Comstar.

The shareholders also approved the new edition of Comstar’s Charter, bylaws regarding the Annual Meeting of Shareholders, Management Board, President, Audit Committee, and Remuneration and Compensation policy for the members of the Board of Directors.

Deloitte & Touch CIS was appointed as Comstar’s US GAAP auditor for 2009, and BDO Unicon was appointed as Comstar’s Russian Accounting Standards auditor for 2009.