Former President Robert Kocharyan has been formally included to the board of directors of a leading Russian corporation that controls Armenia’s largest mobile phone operator, it was announced. In a written statement, the Moscow-based group AFK Sistema said the appointment was approved by its shareholders at an annual general meeting held over the weekend. It said Kocharyan will have the status of an “independent director” in the 13-member board. Kocharyan was nominated for board membership by the Sistema management late last month. The Board of the Sistema also included more members – Leonid Melamed and member of the Board of Directors of the Sistema Shyam Teleservice, Rajiv Mehrotra. Thus it turns out that three more people were included in the Board of the Sistema and currently the number of the members of the board is 13. A company spokeswoman told the Armenian service that it took into account Kocharyan’s extensive experience in international relations and his “good knowledge of CIS markets.” She said the former Armenian leader is also respected by the Russian business community. The official, made clear that Kocharyan, who ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, will not have to relocate to Moscow as the Sistema board normally meets only twice a year. Nor will the new position place any limitations on his political activities at home, she said. With a market capitalization of $29 billion, Sistema is Russia’s leading publicly listed financial corporation with extensive interests in telecommunications, energy, banking, mass media and other fields. Its key asset is Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), Russia’s largest mobile phone company. Besides that according to the statement, the stakeholders of the Sistema have decided not to pay dividends for the results of works of 2008. The Sistema was established in 1993. The main shareholder of the company is Vladimir Yevtushenko (62.13% owner of the stocks). The main actives of the company are the mobile operators MTS (52.8% of stocks) and the Sky Link (over 50% of the stocks) and alternative operators Komstar (53% 0f the stocks), MGTS (33%), operator of remote communication MTT (43% of the stocks), Svyazinvest (25%), Sitroniks (71%), Sistema Gals (71.7% of the stocks), Detski Mir communication (100% of the stocks), tour operator Inturist (66%), etc.
