Moscow, 12 March 2005. On 11 March, the Chisinau authorities detained one of the top managers of RAO "UES of Russia", Advisor to the Chairman of the Management Board Valeriu Pasat. It is an extraordinary event for our Company. RAO "UES of Russia" is taking a number of measures in close cooperation with the government authorities of Russia. Our goal is to endeavour, by all lawful means, to have Mr. Pasat released.

Today, I spoke on the telephone with the Energy Minister of Moldova Iakob Timciuc and President Vladimir Voronin. Mr. Voronin noted that the Moldovan authorities did not have any complaints against RAO "UES of Russia" or our activities in Moldova. But he said they had charges against Mr. Pasat. For all that was said to me by the Moldovan authorities, it is impossible to separate Mr. Pasat's detainment from what has been going on in the relations between Russian and Moldova over the past few weeks. One gets the impression that the forces interested in escalation of tension between Russia and Moldova, in pushing the situation towards confrontation,—apparently these forces are taking the upper hand in Moldova. In my opinion, it is an absolute dead-end policy, which is unreasonable and extremely harmful for both countries. I am totally confident that Russia is many times stronger. But only utterly irresponsible politicians would push the situation to the point of checking if it is really so. I do hope this will not happen.

The Moldovan authorities know very well what we have done and are doing in the Republic to develop the energy links between our countries, including electricity supplies to the Republic and our pending investments in Moldova. By the way, Valeriu Pasat is immediately involved in this process. We, on our part, are not trying to escalate the situation—on the contrary, we are endeavouring to further develop what has been achieved over the five years of hard work. This was done on the express request of Moldova's President Vladimir Voronin. When it was necessary to provide aid to the Republic of Moldova, we did so with the support of the Russian Government. I flew to Moldova and had meetings with President Voronin, I flew to Ukraine to urgently arrange electricity supplies to Moldova. We succeeded in implementing that mission. It is very easy to destroy all that. And it is much more difficult to restore the normal situation— a thing which, in my opinion, is really needed today.

By the way, Mr. Voronin invited me to visit Moldova in the very near future to discuss the prospects of cooperation in the field of energy. I said that my visit would only be possible if a decision were taken to change the measure of restraint for Valeriu Pasat and to release him from custody. As to the charges brought against him, it is difficult for us at RAO "UES of Russia" to comment upon them. I can only express my own opinion on the matter, as I know Mr. Pasat very well through our joint work—I know his personal qualities and his way of life. The multi-million dollar charges against such a person are ridiculous and absurd. I am sure that an unbiased investigation will soon put everything right.