OREANDA-NEWS. December 29, 2009. CenterTelecom OJSC announced that Evgeny Yurchenko, Chairman of the Board of Directors, CenterTelecom, and Nikolai Arutyunov, Member of the Board of Directors, CenterTelecom, have won the Russian Corporate Governance Leaders Award. Nikolai Arutyunov who heads the research department at the Moscow representative office of NCH Advisors, Inc., has won Best Independent Director nomination. Evgeny Yurchenko, CEO, Svyazinvest, has been awarded Business Reputation Special Prize for his personal contributions to CenterTelecom's efficient investor relations program.

The awards ceremony was held on December 9 during the Corporate Governance in Russia Conference organized by Investor Protection Association (IPA). Among the members of the Award's jury were major Russian and foreign institutional investors.

Denis Kulikov, Executive Director, IPA, pointed out: "Certainly such a high assessment assigned by investment market players is very important for a company. The fact that two members of CenterTelecom's Board of Directors won the Award reflects the high level of professionalism among the company's directors."