VimpelCom wins prestigious Best Investor Relations Award for fourth straight year
02 Nov 2006

Moscow and New York (November 2, 2006) — Open Joint Stock Company "Vimpel-Communications" ("VimpelCom" or the "Company") (NYSE: VIP), is pleased to announce that once again it was named the winner of the Best IR by a Russian Company Award at the IR Magazine Continental Europe Conference and Awards 2006 held on October 25, 2006 in Zurich, Switzerland.

"We are honored to receive the prestigious “Best IR by a Russian Company Award” for the fourth consecutive year from IR Magazine," said Alexander Izosimov, Chief Executive Officer of VimpelCom. “Since our founding, we have built our business based upon principles of transparency and sound corporate governance. As we approach the tenth anniversary of our listing on the NYSE, we are extremely pleased that our efforts to work in the interests of all of our shareholders have once again been recognized by the international financial community."

The IR Magazine awards are recognized worldwide as among the most accurate and reliable measures of excellence and accomplishment in the fields of investor relations and corporate governance. IR Magazine commissions an independent research survey covering a broad cross-section of the Continental European investment community. The target group, consisting of more than 500 buy-side analysts, sell-side analysts and portfolio managers, has been interviewed to provide a comprehensive insight into current investor sentiment toward IR issues in the Continental European market.

VimpelCom is a leading international provider of mobile telecommunications services in Russia and Kazakhstan, with recently acquired operators in Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Georgia. The VimpelCom Group’s license portfolio covers approximately 237 million people. Geographically it covers 78 regions in Russia (with 136.5 million people, representing 94% of Russia’s population) as well as the entire territories of Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Georgia. VimpelCom was the first Russian company to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”). VimpelCom’s ADSs are listed on the NYSE under the symbol “VIP”.

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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