Moscow, 15 February 2006. Alu Alkhanov, President of the Republic of Chechnya, has today awarded Chairman of the Management Board of RAO "UES of Russia Anatoly Chubais a Medal of Merit for the Chechen Republic. The chief executive of RAO "UES of Russia" has been given the highest award of Chechnya for his major contribution to the restoration of the energy system and power supply in the region.

Those present at the official ceremony had a moment of silence to remember the energy workers whose killed in the energy restoration efforts in the Republic of Chechnya. Alu Alkhanov expressed his words of gratitude to the staff of RAO "UES of Russia" for taking care of the killed workers' families.

The work to restore the energy system in Chechnya was launched in November 1999. Since then, the construction and repair crews have brought on line 7,840 km of transmission lines of 330 kV and less, 79 substations for voltages of 330-35 kV, and over 1,900 substations of 6-10/0.4 kV.

In 2005 alone, the crews of RAO "UES of Russia" restored and put into operation transmission lines totalling 120 km, and erected and put into service 18 transformer substations. Overall, the capex in the restoration of the energy system in Chechnya was in excess of RUB1.2 billion in 2005.

The project was completed to launch the Automated Commercial Electricity Metering System for Russia's wholesale electricity market, FOREM.

Also, the construction and installation works were finally completed to restore the Argunskaya CHPP (first phase).

The work done by RAO "UES of Russia" enabled it to meet the ever-increasing consumer demand for electricity in Chechnya.

RAO "UES of Russia" has allocated RUB700 million in funds for its 2005 capex programme to restore the energy facilities in the Republic.