Vimpelcom announces new stock repurchase program
20 May 2005

Moscow and New York (May 11, 2005) - Open Joint Stock Company "Vimpel-Communications" ("VimpelCom" or the "Company") (NYSE: VIP) today announced that its board of directors has authorized VC ESOP N.V., an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, to repurchase up to 544,000 of American Depositary Shares, or ADSs, which is equivalent to up to 136,000 shares of the Company's common stock, par value 0.5 kopecks per share, beginning May 13, 2005. The number of shares underlying ADSs that may be repurchased equals approximately 0.3% of shares currently outstanding. The Company and VC ESOP intend to utilize the repurchased shares for the issuance of stock based compensation awards.

The ADSs will be repurchased from time to time in open market transactions or privately negotiated transactions at VC ESOP's discretion, subject to market conditions and other factors, including the Company's insider trading policy, United States and Russian securities laws and Rule 10b-18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

VimpelCom also announced that it has established a systematic purchasing plan under Rule 10b5-1 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to facilitate repurchases under the repurchase program. Rule 10b5-1 permits a public company to repurchase its shares at times when it ordinarily would not be in the market because of self-imposed trading blackout periods. Under the Rule 10b5-1 plan, certain specified amounts of ADSs will be purchased on a daily basis provided that specified trading prices are achieved. The Rule 10b5-1 plan expires upon the earliest of May 4, 2006, the purchase of all the ADSs covered by the plan, or certain other specified events.

Depending on market conditions, VC ESOP may conduct repurchases under the repurchase program in the open market and in privately negotiated transactions from time to time during its normal trading windows.

The Company also announced that it has amended its Amended and Restated 2000 Stock Option Plan to increase the maximum number of shares available for issuance under the Plan from 250,000 to 450,000 common shares (equivalent to 1,800,000 ADSs) and to extend the term of the Plan to December 31, 2015.

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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