Rostelecom Board of Directors Decides on Dividends

The Board of Directors of Rostelecom has approved the data of conducting the annual shareholders' meeting and recommended the amount of dividend payments for 2002. The meeting is to take place on June 15, 2003. The date of record is April 28, 2003, the company's press service reported.

The Board of Directors has recommended dividend payments totaling 309.5m rubles ($9.92m) for 2002, which is 10 percent of the company's net income in 2002 calculated in accordance with Russian accounting standards, (RUR1.27472 per preferred share).

Dividends on common shares have been recommended at RUR0.54347 per share, which totals 396m rubles ($12.69m), some 12.8 percent of the company's net income for 2002 calculated in accordance with Russian accounting standards. The total amount of dividends for 2002 exceeds the 2001 dividends by 86 percent.

Rostelecom ADR holders will receive dividends in dollars at a ratio of 1:6 (one ADR is equal to six common shares).

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