Moscow, Russia – April 16, 2012 – Rostelecom OJSC (MICEX - RTS: RTKM, RTKMP; OTCQX: ROSYY) (“the Company”), Russia’s national telecommunications operator, announces that it has connected 70 Russian regions to the single federal E-Government system. As a result, the majority of Russian regions can now obtain E-Government services by utilising Rostelecom’s solutions and infrastructure.

Effective cooperation between Rostelecom and regional authorities has enabled the Company to connect regional federal agencies to a single federal electronic system through which agencies can interact with each other and to provide new services to the public. 13 regions that have not been connected to the system are currently developing their own versions of the regional E-Government system, and these will be integrated into the federal system by the mid-2012.

Alexey Nashchekin, Vice President for Innovation Development of Rostelecom, commented: “The Software as a Service (SaaS) model that we have suggested for this project has been endorsed by Igor Shchegolev, the Russian Federation’s Minister of Communications and Mass Media, at the first council meeting on the regional information system development. As a result, 70 Russian regions have been able to connect to the E-Government infrastructure utilising Rostelecom’s current cloud platform. Our solutions have already proven to be very effective and we look forward to contribute more to this process.”

In accordance with the Federal Law on the organisation of government and municipal services, all Russian Federation regions and municipal entities must start interacting via the new inter-agency electronic platform by July 1, 2012. Federal authorities have been utilising the platform since October 1, 2011. This change in working practice means that federal agencies will not be able to request information from citizens that have already been obtained by other authorities in Russia. 

In accordance with a Russian Federal Government Decree, Rostelecom has been appointed as the sole contractor of the “Information Society (2011-2020)” Federal Programme, responsible for the development of infrastructure required to run E-Government systems across Russia.