Moscow, 5 November 2008 – UC RUSAL, which owns a 25% plus two shares stake in Norilsk Nickel, is issuing this statement to voice its concerns about the announced buy back of shares by MMC Norilsk Nickel worth of RUB 26 billion despite the Krasnoyarsk region's arbitration court ordering that such action be blocked.


On 28 October, copies of the documents issued by the Krasnoyarsk region’s arbitration court ordering an immediate halt to any transactions in the framework of the buy back of Norilsk Nickel shares were presented to the company's Moscow office. This fact is proved by the seal and signature on the notification by the company’s representative. UC RUSAL has a copy of this notification. In addition, the notification of the court order was sent to Norilsk Nickel's CEO by e-mail.


Similar documents were sent by e-mail on 28 October to the general address and also to the general manager of the National Registration Company, acting as an agent of the share buy back procedures, due to the refusal of the company’s representative to accept these documents, which were delivered by a courier.


On 29 October, it took an hour, starting from 9 a.m., for officers of justice to deliver the original documents of the court’s decision to Norilsk Nickel and over two hours to deliver to the National Registration Company. However, it has become obvious today that the delay in accepting the delivery of the court documents was a deliberate and coordinated effort of the two companies. They were doing their best to complete the buy back of shares. The fact that the court had blocked the buy back was known to the companies from the previously received documents and information in the media.


We have no doubt that as the result of the violation of the law, the National Registration Company has completed the transactions to buy back shares tendered by Interros. This is another example of Interros' present and past disregard for the interests of Norilsk Nickel’ minority shareholders.


In this regard, UC RUSAL intends to address today The Federal Financial Markets Service (FFMS) with a request to start an investigation into violations of the law by Norilsk Nickel and the National Registration Company.


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