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From RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 9, No. 122, Part I, 28 June 2005: Russia's Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) announced in a 27 June press release on the company's website (http://www.company.mts.ru) that it has purchased a 51-percent stake in U.S.-registered Barash Communications Technologies, Inc., the leading cellular operator in Turkmenistan, for $28.05 million. MTS is obligated to purchase the remaining 49 percent of the company, provided "certain conditions" are met, within eight months for a price not exceeding $26.95 million. The press release noted that Barash has 59,100 subscribers, or 97 percent of the market in Turkmenistan, where cell phone penetration remains less than 1 percent of the population. Olga Zhilinskaya, an analyst for Moscow-based investment company Renaissance Capital, told gazeta.ru that Turkmenistan is "one of the fastest-growing" markets in the CIS. DK