Moscow, 2 December 2005. Chairman of the Management Board of RAO "UES of Russia" Anatoly Chubais held a meeting today with Wolfgang Schuessel, Federal Chancellor of Austria, and Hans Haider, CEO of Verbund AG*, Austria's leading electricity company.

The parties discussed the possible areas of cooperation in the electricity industry. RAO "UES of Russia" said it was interested Verbund's participation in projects to build energy facilities in Russia using advanced technologies in order to improve reliability of the UES of Russia.

The Austrian officials stated that they viewed Russia as a key partner in the electricity industry and were prepared to explore various options for their country's involvement in that sector of Russia's economy. One of the possible avenues for mutually beneficial cooperation between RAO "UES of Russia" and Verbund is strategic partnership of the Austrian energy company with one or more interregional generation companies (WGCs and TGCs), including acquisition of shares in those companies.

In his turn, the CEO of Verbund said that introduction of an investment guarantee mechanism in Russia might encourage European companies' involvement in the Russian energy sector. Hans Haider emphasized that the introduction of such mechanism would make it possible for RAO "UES of Russia" and Verbund to start considering implementation of joint projects to build generating facilities.

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