8 May  2008, Moscow. Comstar – United Telesystems (JSC Comstar-UTS, LSE: CMST), the largest supplier of integrated telecommunications solutions in Russia and the CIS, has become the Platinum Partner of the Saint-Petersburg club of IT directors.

The club of IT directors of the North West regions (SPb CIO Club) is a community of professionals, forming the strategic vision of IT evolution in theirs respective organizations. The club is not only aiming to create a platform for exchanging views on the actual problems of IT utilization, but also to develop the standards in this field, uniform rules of interaction with suppliers, advisors and developers, to establish an anonymous quality control of theirs operations in order to shape independent ratings, create an independent consultancy center etc. The club  assembles 290 directors of various local and federal companies.

JSC Comstar-UTS as Platinum partner of the club sends its representative to speak at the  workshops and meetings, dedicated to modern telecom services, comprehensive approaches to creation of the corporate IT infrastructure. The JSC Comstar-UTS representatives will attend all the club meetings on a permanent basis, thus allowing the IT directors to get “on-line” an expert advice on telecommunication matters, and the JSC Comstar-UTS to go in-depth into technicalities of IT operations at the various companies, and get better insights into market needs.

JSC Comstar-UTS has already started its cooperation with the club in setting up its core events. In particular, at CIO Congress White Nights to be held on 3 June 2008 JSC Comstar-UTS will co-organize televised conference between Kasperky’s Laboratory and the congress participants. The congress visitors will have an opportunity to ask theirs questions to Evgeny Kasperksy who will speak from Kremlin of Velikiy Novgorod.

JSC Comstar-UTS, being a premier telecom operator in Russia, is interested to further foster the professional IT community. A long term cooperation with SPb CIO Club is set to strongly contribute to the community’s expansion in Saint-Petersburg, and consequently, throughout  Russia, - said Alexandre Kirillov, VP-CTO of JSC Comstar-UTS.