VimpelCom celebrates the 10th anniversary of its NYSE listing
14 Nov 2006

Moscow and New York (November 14, 2006) — Open Joint Stock Company "Vimpel-Communications" ("VimpelCom" or the "Company") (NYSE: VIP), a leading provider of wireless telecommunications services in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the first Russian company in modern history to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its listing tomorrow.

Commenting on the event, Alexander Izosimov, Chief Executive Officer of VimpelCom, said “We are delighted to be in New York to celebrate our 10th anniversary on the New York Stock Exchange.” He continued, “Since our founding, we have built our business based upon principles of transparency and sound corporate governance. By current standards, the size of our IPO was small, slightly more than $100 million – but the impact was enormous. By being the first to list on the NYSE in 1996, we set the stage for what has followed over the last decade – the increased presence of Russian companies in the international markets and the explosive growth of Russian industry.”

To mark the occasion, VimpelCom is holding a meeting of its board of directors in New York on November 14 and a series of meetings and ceremonies on November 15. This will include ringing the bell for the opening of trading at the NYSE. The bell ringing ceremony will take place on November 15 at 9:30am EST and can be viewed at the URL address http://www.vimpelcom.com.

In honor of the date of the first listing of a Russian company on the NYSE, the Russian Association of Investor Relations Professionals has decided that it will celebrate an IR professional holiday annually on November 15.

VimpelCom

Altimo, a leading private equity group, operating on some of the world's most desirable and potentially lucrative mobile telecommunications markets, was created in 2005 from Alfa Telecom, which itself was established in 2004 to hold the telecoms investments of the Alfa Group Consortium (Golden Telecom, Inc., Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S., Kyivstar GSM, MegaFon, VimpelCom, Sky Mobile). Those assets are in Russia, the CIS and other promising emerging markets.

VimpelCom consists of telecommunications operators providing voice and data services through a range of wireless, fixed and broadband technologies. The Group includes companies operating in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Armenia, in territories with a total population of about 340 million. The Group companies provide services under the "Beeline" brand.  VimpelCom was the first Russian company to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (under the symbol "VIP").  In Q1 2008, VimpelCom acquired 100% of the oustanding share capital of Golden Telecom, a leading facilities-based provider of integrated telecommunications and Internet services in Russia and the CIS.

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