May 20, 2006

The meeting of the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) stockholders, held today, discussed and approved the Exchange’s financial and economic performance for 2005 and came to the decision upon the Exchange’s net profit distribution. In particular the Exchange’s authorized capital enlargement was affirmed. According to Alexander Potemkin, the MICEX President, an increase in the MICEX Group’s capitalization and reserve funds and the launch of new exchange procedures and instruments are all aimed at accelerating the development of the the Russian financial market infrastructure which constitutes one of the main driving forces of the investment activity in the Russian markets.

The stockholders discussed the results of the MICEX financial and economic performance and adopted the financial statements for the period of 2005. According to these statements, prepared under the Russian accounting standards, the Exchange’s net profit grew 1.43 times during 2005, to 731.652 million rubles (in 2004 it amounted 512.234 million rubles). Stockholders decided to distribute the net profit in the following way:

• dividends: 73.165 million rubles (656.69 rubles per 1 common share registered);

• payments to the special-purpose funds (the guarantee funds for the securities and currency markets clearing, the reserve fund covering the risks related to the Derivatives Market Section operations, the guarantee fund for clearing on the derivatives market (stock derivatives) and the development fund): 658.487 million rubles.

Stockholders decided to raise the MICEX authorized capital to 1154.150 million rubles (at present: 807.905 million rubles) by increasing the face value of the distributed before, registered common shares from 7000 to 10000 rubles.

Deloitte & Touche CIS was appointed the MICEX auditor till the next annual general stockholders’ meeting.

Stockholders elected the Board of the MICEX (14 people), which will work till the next annual general stockholders’ meeting. The Board is comprised of:

• Alexei Akinshin (Deputy President-Chairman of the Board of Vneshtorgbank)

• Ivan Bolshakov (First Vice-President and Deputy Chairman of the Board of Eurofinance Mosnarbank)

• Andrei çÏÌÉËÏ× (Director of Treasury of Sberbank)

• Nadezhda Ivanova (Director of the Bank of Russia’s Combined Economic Department)

• Vladimir Karmashev (Director of the Bank of Russia’s Department for Provision and Control of Operations on Financial Markets)

• Konstantin Korishchenko (Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia)

• Sergei Koshelenko (Deputy Chairman of the Board of Rosbank)

• Nina Kukuruzova (Advisor to the Chairman of the Board and member of the Supervisory Council of Bank St.Petersburg)

• Sergei Lykov (Deputy Chairman of Vnesheconombank)

• Alexander Potemkin (President of the MICEX)

• Alexander Sobol (Deputy Chairman of the Board of Gazprombank)

• Sergei Shvetsov (Director of the Bank of Russia’s Department for Operations on Financial Markets)

• Kirill Shershun (First Deputy Chairman of the Board of CentroCredit Bank)

• Andrei Yumatov (General Manager and Head of the Department for Financial Markets of International Moscow Bank)

At its sitting, held immediately after the stockholders’ meeting, the Board of the MICEX reelected Konstantin Korishchenko (the Bank of Russia) Chairman of the Board. Sergei Lykov (Vnesheconombank) was elected Deputy Chairman of the Board.

Stockholders elected the following people members of the MICEX Auditing Committee till the next annual general meeting:

• Svetlana Kiselyova (Head of the Internal Audit Service of International Moscow Bank),

• Tatyana Sannikova (Deputy Director of the Bank of Russia’s Department for Provision and Control of Operations on Financial Markets),

• Igor Turuyev (Vneshtorgbank’s Senior Vice-President and Head of Internal Control Department),

• Vyacheslav Ulupov (Director of Vnesheconombank’s Internal Control and Audit Department),

• Oleg Chistyakov (Deputy Director of Sberbank’s Department for Internal Control, Inspections and Audit).

The meeting discussed the results of the MICEX’s performance in 2005 and stated that the total volume of trading reached in 2005 enables the MICEX to rank with leading world exchanges. In 2005, the total volume of trading in all the markets of the MICEX Group amounted to a record 26.3 trillion rubles (925.1 billion US dollars), 1.7 times more than in 2004 (15.8 trillion rubles or 548.5 billion dollars).

Correspondingly, over the last year, the average daily volume of transactions within the MICEX Group grew to 106.3 billion rubles (3.7 billion dollars). During the first four months of 2006, it grew to 172.6 billion rubles (6.2 billion dollars). These results were achieved thanks to the rapid development of all sectors of the market: the currency market (growth: 1.7 times), the corporate securities market (growth: 1.5 times), the government securities market (growth: 2.1 times) and the derivatives market (growth: 14.3 times).

The MICEX President Alexander Potemkin noted in his report that the Exchange had achieved these impressive results thanks to the intensive development of all sectors of the market and the successful implementation of a number of large-scale projects:

• the launch of the MICEX Stock Exchange, which has become Russia’s leading floor by the volume of trading in corporate, municipal and regional securities;

• the launch of trading in Gazprom shares on the MICEX Stock Exchange;

• the establishment of the National Clearing Center within the MICEX Group. The NCC organizes settlements and clearing for deals made on the MICEX orderly markets.

• the development of the euro market with its up-to-date trading procedures.

Speaking about the strategy of the MICEX Group’s development, Alexander Potemkin said that the MICEX’s long-term goal was becoming the nucleus of a universal infrastructure Group, based on a top-level soft- and hardware platform. Responding to world trends and tasks facing the development of the Russian financial market’s infrastructure, the MICEX intends to focus on the following areas:

• the improvement of the settlement and depository service of the exchange and the OTC markets;

• the work of the National Clearing Center; transfer of the main sectors of the market to the NCC for service;

• the improvement of the procedures of settlements on the currency market; the development of the euro/ruble market;

• the development of the money market, including the market of inter-bank loans;

• the development of the market of derivative financial instruments (options, interest rate derivatives on stock assets);

• the development of the market of derivative instruments on main commodities, including fuels and agricultural products;

• the enhancement of marketing efforts and client service in the work of the Group.