Moscow, September 30, 2005. CenterTelecom (RTS: ESMO, ESMOP; MICEX: CTLK, CTLKP, US OTC: CRMUY, Frankfurt: CRMUy.F, Berlin: CRMUy.BE), is pleased to announce that the international rating agency Standard & Poor’s has increased its long-term credit rating on the Company from ???+ to ?-, forecast — Stable. At the same time the credit rating of the Company, according to the Russian national scale, and the rating of the senior unsecured debt was raised from ruBB+ up to ruBB?-.

The rating increase reflects the significant improvement CenterTelecom has made in controlling expenditure and stemming a further increase in debt obligations.  However, because of liability to financial risk, a low level of liquidity and debt load, the rating level continues to be constrained.

Standard & Poor’s believes that CenterTelecom is capable of maintaining a stable financial risk environment, whilst further improving its operational and network activities.

Rouben Amaryan, General Director of OJSC “CenterTelecom” said: “The Company continues to rigorously pursue its firm policy on cost reduction, efficient capital investment, and debt load reduction”.

For detailed information on CenterTelecom’s credit rating increase, please visit Standard & Poor's: https://www.standardandpoors.ru or www.centertelecom.ru/eng/investors/ratings/.

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CenterTelecom is the leading fixed-line telecommunications operator in the Central Federal District of Russia, providing the whole range of communication services to more than 20% of the Russian population, including telephony, Internet, IP-telephony, data transmission and on-air radio broadcasting and cable TV.