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Russian Cell Phone Operator Chief Vows to Get Back Kyrgyz Cellular Operator

Posted on: Friday, 16 December 2005, 15:00 CST

Excerpt from report by Kyrgyz AKIpress news agency website

Bishkek, 15 December: President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has been shocked by the situation in the largest cellular communications operator BiTel, the president of the Mobile TeleSystems [MTS; Russia's largest cell phone operator] joint-stock company, Vasiliy Sidorov, has said in Bishkek.

He said that he had met the Kyrgyz president to discuss the situation in the BiTel cell phone operator. "As far as I have understood from Mr Bakiyev's reaction, he has been very shocked by the details which I have given," Vasiliy Sidorov said.

He said that he had also met Prime Minister Feliks Kulov and Speaker Omurbek Tekebayev. "I have told them why I am here, what kind of absolutely transparent and noble plans we have towards Kyrgyzstan and how we want to develop this country," the president of the MTS said. "As it seemed to me when I gave them details of a disorder which I saw in the office of BiTel [Bishkek cell phone operator] today, the details shocked them," Vasiliy Sidorov went on to say.

He noted that the Kyrgyz president "has given him an assurance that the situation will be examined and an attempt will be made to find out why this is happening and why it is happening precisely in this way". "As far as I have understood, specific instructions have been given to bring the activities of officials into line with the law as soon as possible. I hope that this intervention will resolve the situation within a normal legal framework," Vasiliy Sidorov said.

The Kyrgyz Supreme Court adopted a resolution on 15 December in line with which the Fellowes company [reportedly a subsidiary of Russia's Alfa Group] had been declared the owner of 100 per cent of shares in the BiTel limited-liability company. Representatives of the Rezervspetsmet company [also reportedly owned by Russia's Alfa Group], to which Fellowes had sold BiTel earlier, immediately seized the office of BiTel and the switchboard. The office was cordoned off by the Kyrgyz law-enforcement agencies. In the meantime, at around 1600 [local time], all clients of BiTel (470,000 mobile users) were left without service. The telephone connection was gradually restored at about 2000. What is more, the director-general of BiTel, Daniyar Omurzakov; his deputy Anton Fortuna, and the financial director, Andrey Batanov, were arrested.

Vasiliy Sidorov said that the development of events in BiTel was quite unexpected to him. He said he had been perplexed by the seizure of the company and by the arrest of the company's officials. "It will not be difficult to identify the circle of direct participants in the disorder. We know the mastermind behind it. It is a company bearing the abridged name of Rezervspetsmet," the president of MTS said.

'The occupants are raiders who, unfortunately, have Russian roots and who do not want to consider the fact that countries where the political situation is unstable and where democracy is young require careful attitude," Vasiliy Sidorov said.

He said: "The incident was planned thoroughly" and that "medium- level officials, in particular the executive power were directly involved in the forcible operation".

"We have come on a scheduled visit [to Bishkek], having scheduled a series of meetings. We were absolutely sure that the illegitimate, groundless and irrelevant decision by the Supreme Court would be rejected. At the worst, it would be postponed and at best, a fair decision would be adopted," he said.

He believes that "this case is not subject to consideration by a court of law as it is being considered in other jurisdictions". "We will certainly make use of every method of fighting available to us within the law to restore our rights and to normalize the situation," Vasiliy Sidorov said.

[Passage omitted: Details of the purchase of BiTel by MTS]

Source: BBC Monitoring Central Asia

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