The Board of Directors decided to suspend the authority of S. V. Soldatenkov as General Director of OJSC North-West Telecom on the basis of his personal petition.

            The Board appointed Alexander Abramovich Sysoyev Interim General Director of OJSC North-West Telecom.

An extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of OJSC North-West Telecom on September 6th is to pass a resolution on retirement of S. V. Soldatenkov and to approve a new General Director of the Company.

Some of these days, the newspaper Izvestia will publish an announcement on summoning of the meeting, and the procedure and dates of nomination for the office of General Director of OJSC North-West Telecom.

Parting with the team, S. V. Soldatenkov said:

“My job in the North-West Telecom became one of the most meaningful spans in my life. I am grateful to the Company’s personnel for support and understanding throughout these years. In the tear of the 120th anniversary of telephone communication in St. Petersburg, three largest communication companies of the city completely integrated into one business and engineering structure, and a successfully developing one, too. The strategic task of the North-West Telecom, that is, formal consolidation of operators of the North-West, is actually completed.

The Company has a lot of important challenges ahead, where the experience of a professional communication worker. I know Alexander Abramovich Sysoyev as a talented director and a professional in his business. I hope his nomination will be supported by shareholders of OJSC North-West Telecom at the forthcoming meeting.

Taking his new position, A. A. Sysoyev said in his turn:

           “I am grateful to the Board of Directors of OJSC North-West Telecom for their confidence in me. It can be said today that the integrated group North-West Telecom is an accomplished fact – thanks to managing efforts of JSC Sviazinvest, Board of Directors of OJSC North-West Telecom, and General Director Sergei Vladimirovich Soldatenkov. The next thing to do is to integrate regional companies’ businesses into one and only business of the North-West Region. Taking office at this stage, I appreciate the importance of keeping the traditional ideology as described by the Company’s shareholders. I am sure that the highly professional team of OJSC North-West Telecom is able to meet the challenges.

Brief CV:

A. A. Sysoyev was born in Leningrad in 1949. Of 36 years of his work experience, 26 were in the communication industry. In 1978 he graduated from the Bonch-Bruyevich Institute of Electric Technology and Communications in Leningrad., with a diploma in automatic telecommunication. In 2002 Mr. Sysoyev got a second higher education diploma, this time in Finance and Credit at St. Petersburg State Economics and Finance University. In the period of 1976 till 1998, at the St. Petersburg Telegraph, Russia’s oldest document communication facility, he made his career from an engineer to General Director. From 1998 till 2002 he was the top director of JSC Lensviaz, a traditional operator offering telephone communication services all over Leningrad Oblast.