October 5, 2000, Moscow - Golden Telecom, Inc. (GTI) (Nasdaq: GLDN), a leading facilities-based provider of integrated telecommunications and Internet services throughout Russia and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), announced today the launch of a new multi-purpose web site aimed to provide the leading accumulation of Internet functionality in the Russian Internet.

Starting from today a considerably redesigned main page of the portal (www.online.ru) takes the user to a full range of online features and applications. The portal's key components are the Web resources and technologies acquired by Golden Telecom during the last six months Infoart, Agama and other projects.

The resources of the portal in its first release include:

novosti.online.ru - a dynamic multichannel news source based on InfoArt news conveyers and technologies;

go.online.ru - a powerful search engine and catalogue system created on the Aport content and Web technologies;

forum.online.ru - a community site with online forums, chats and other interactive features build on the Agama and InfoArt technologies;

fun.online.ru - an entertainment site with daily hot topics and inputs from galleries and features;

services.online.ru - will provide information for the Russia-On-Line Internet subscribers (tariffs, company info, personal statistics pages, news, announcements etc.) and contain applications for Web masters;

1000Stars.ru - continues to be a leading rating source in the Russian Internet; games.online.ru and referat.online.ru - will keep their leading positions in the sphere of gaming and education.

A considerable part of the portal is dedicated to Web-mastering in terms of hosting and Internet/computer applications, and building online communities. Russia-On-Line continues to provide services of banner advertisement, news collocation and building system ratings.

"We are convinced in the success of this portal, the more so because it has combined the most powerful projects of the Russian Internet in it." - says Cliff Gauntlett, Internet services Director of GTI. "We could have built a portal from scratch or we could have purchased projects. We found a combination of these tactics to be suitable for the RuNet. From now on our strategy will be to provide quality full service and useful information for our users. For now our acquisitions have made possible the creation of the core of the portal, and our next steps will be aimed at building up its potential".

Golden Telecom CEO Mr. Stewart Reich stated: "Our strategic goal has always been to set up a new horizontal superportal.This was the primary reason for the resource acquisitions and the investments we made to expand the range of our telecom services and content providing. The new Russia-on-Line portal we are announcing today is the natural progression of our acquisitions of capacities and resources to date."

About Russia-On-Line

Russia-On-Line (tm) is one of the biggest providers of dialup WWW services in Russia/CIS. Created in 1995, it now has access points in about 50 cities throughout Russia and the CIS, including Moscow and St. Petersburg. It provides a full range of dialup services as well as other Internet related services such as web hosting, co-location, and domain name registration for the "ru" domain. In addition, ROL customers can enjoy global roaming opportunities thanks to roaming agreements with ISPs in over 150 countries of the world. Russia-On-Line (tm) is a brand that belongs to TeleRoss, the core of group of companies operating under the Golden Telecom trademark.

About Golden Telecom, Inc.

Golden Telecom, Inc. (Nasdaq: GLDN), is a leading facilities-based provider of integrated telecommunications and Internet services throughout Russia and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). It operates through several affiliated companies under the Golden Telecom trademark. Golden Telecom offers competitive local exchange carrier services using its local access overlay networks in Moscow, Kiev and Saint Petersburg. In addition, the company offers data and long-distance services using a fiber optic and satellite-based network -- including more than 100 combined network access points in Russia and other countries of the CIS. Golden Telecom also provides mobile services using cellular networks in Kiev.

Contacts:

Asia Zeydema, Russia-On-Line,
(095) 787-1000
e-mail: asiaz@online.ru

Irena Fadeeva
(095) 960-2794
e-mail: irena@online.ru

Serguey Chumin, Katya Kandalina
(095) 236-0372, 745-8533
e-mail: msapr@online.ru

InfoArt

Source: InfoArt

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