November 1, 2007

Today the MICEX has held the round table "Best Investor Relations Practice". The event included the awarding of best Russian IR-specialists on the basis of the results for the Extel Survey √ Focus Russia 2007 study, conducted jointly by Interfax and Thomson Financial. The MICEX Stock Exchange was the General Partner of the survey.

The survey provides the ranking of analysts of investment banks, brokers and companies▓ IR specialists worldwide and is based on the results of the voting of participants in the financial market.

Following the results of the survey, Interfax and Thomson Financial published the lists of winners of the first annual prize of the Thomson Extel Survey — Focus Russia 2007 in the sphere of investor relations, conducted in the framework of pan-European poll of investors, analysts and issuers.

LUKoil was announced Russia▓s best company in the sphere of investor relations and Dmitry Zhdanovich (Gazprom) was announced the best IR specialist.

Winners of the Thomson Extel Survey — Focus Russia 2007 in selected industries are:

Finances

• Best public company: Sberbank

• Best investor relations professional: Julia Vinogradova, Vozrozhdenie Bank

  Metallurgy and mining

• Best public company: Norilsk Nickel

• Best investor relations professional: Dmitry Usanov, Norilsk Nickel

Oil and gas

• Best public company: LUKoil

• Best investor relations professional: Dmitry Zhdanovich, Gazprom

  Telecoms

• Best public company: MTS

• Best investor relations professional: Joshua Tulgan, MTS

  Electric power industry

• Best public company: RAO UES

• Best investor relations professional: Irina Makarenko, RAO UES

Consumer sector

• Best public company: Lebedyansky

• Best investor relations professional: Natalia Belyavskaya, Vimm-Bill-Dann

The ranking of IR teams and IR specialists, received as a result of the survey, is based on the results of the voting of participants in the financial market held in the period of 19 March — 13 May 2007.

Over 300 people took part in the voting, representing 152 management companies from 17 countries (49.34% from Russia, 12.50% from Great Britain, 7.89% from Germany, 7.24% from the USA, 5.26% from France, 3.95% from the countries of Scandinavia, 3.95% from Switzerland, 2.63% from the countries of Asia, 2.63% from Italy and 4.61% from other countries.)

Winners in each industry include 3 companies and one IR specialist. The final group of winners is comprised of winners (best companies and IR specialists) in selected industries.

According to the CEO of the MICEX Stock Exchange Alexei Rybnikov, the improvement of the work of Russian investor relations specialists reflects the rapid development of the Russian stock market. In January-September 2007 the total volume of transactions in non-government securities, including stocks, bonds, shares of investment funds and repos, on the MICEX Stock Exchange reached 30.24 trillion rubles (1.17 trillion dollars), 2.2 times more than in the same period of 2006. In October 2007 the number of individual investors registered on the Exchange exceeded 400 thousand, twice as many as in 2006.

The round table also included master classes given by the winners, discussion of the latest trends in the sphere of investor relations and exchange of experience.

THE THOMSON EXTEL SURVEY has been conducted annually since 1974. It is regarded as the leading benchmark for the assessment of the investment community worldwide by the investment community worldwide.

THE THOMSON EXTEL SURVEY is a unique survey. All information, voting figures and the survey methodology are checked and confirmed by independent experts, in particular, Deloitte (since 2000). The results of the survey are very important for the companies mentioned in the aforementioned list.

Find more information on the results of the surveys of 2006 and 2007 in the Investor Relations section of Interfax web site (www.interfax.ru) or contact:

Telephone:(+7 495) 250-8036,Fax: (+7 495) 250-9457,

E-mail: IR@interfax.ru