"VTB-ARMENIA BANK" CLOSED THREE OF ITS BRANCHES

Mediamax News Agency, Armenia
June 5 2007

Yerevan, June 5 /Mediamax/. By the decision of the Armenian
Central Bank (CB), cessation of the activities of three branches of
"VTB-Armenia Bank" is registered.

As Mediamax was told in the CB press service today, the activities
of two branches of "VTB-Armenia Bank" in Yerevan, located 5 Mazmanian
str. and 24 Norashen str., and one branch in Ararat town, located 32
Shahumian, are stopped.

Mediamax recalls that in November 2006, the Vice-President of the
Russian VTB Bank Vasili Titov stated in an interview to the Ukrainian
"Contracts" newspaper:

"In Armenia we bought a large bank with a net of 100 branches, some
of them are very unprofitable, and one must just liquidate them.

However, the local authorities very much oppose to that. In many of
Armenian villages out branches are almost the only ones, making the
banking services available for the population. Thus, we cannot push
our way through; we should take into account not only our interests,
but also the opinion of the authorities".

Mediamax reminds that the President of the "Mika Limited" Company
Mikhail Baghdasarov, who still owns the 30% share of "VTB-Armenia
Bank", was saying in November of 2006 that the reason for his decision
to sell the shares was the discord with the policy of the "VTB-Armenia
Bank" leadership. In particular, Baghdasarov noted then, the leadership
of the bank intends to close 40 branches in the regions of Armenia,
which is unacceptable for him.