WORKING TOGETHER

SOCIAL REPORT 2008 Throughout its history, Alfa-Bank has taken seriously its role in sponsoring socially significant events. Therefore today, as we witness major changes in both the country’s economy and its social sphere, we understand how important it is for financial institutions to participate in ’s social life.

Rushan Khvesyuk Chairman of the Executive Board, Member of the Board of Directors Message from Alfa-Bank Management

Alfa-Bank is pleased to present its Social Report 2008. From nearly the time of its foundation, Alfa-Bank has paid special attention to arranging and sponsoring socially significant events, including charitable programs and large-scale and sometimes unique projects in art and culture. Alfa has never forgotten the importance of social initiatives to all the regions where it operates. By making a continuous effort to create a better social environment and build a prosperous society, we are laying the foundation for the long-term success of Alfa-Bank.

This report contains brief summaries of most of the charitable and social events Alfa-Bank was involved with in 2008. Alfa-Bank presented masterpieces of world culture to the Russian public and arranged for renowned Russian artists to appear in major cities around the globe. Our most noteworthy projects are those that focus on supporting vulnerable groups, including children, students, the disabled and veterans. For example, since 2004 Alfa-Bank and its employees have been donating money to help seriously ill children as part of a joint program with the Life Line Charity. And together with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Bank supports initiatives to protect the environment.

Our collaboration with the world of art began several years ago. Many landmark events in Russia’s cultural life were sponsored by Alfa-Bank. Two of these were especially noteworthy: a contemporary art exhibition arranged by well-known art dealer Larry Gagosian to commemorate the launch of an A-Club in Barvikha where, for the first time in Russia, works were on display by Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Damien Hurst, Richard Prince, and Takashi Murakami; and a preview of contemporary American art masterpieces organized jointly with Sotheby’s Auction House.

Contemporary art is a phenomenon of the last two decades, and as such it is interesting from both an aesthetic and practical point of view. That is why, for the second year in a row, our partners from Forbes magazine have selected those contemporary Russian artists who are most promising from an investment standpoint. The results of the selection were presented in 2007 and 2008 at the Forbes’ Choice exhibition in Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Samara.

Throughout its history, Alfa-Bank has taken seriously its role in sponsoring socially significant events. Therefore today, as we witness major changes in both the country’s economy and its social sphere, we understand how important it is for financial institutions to participate in Russia’s social life. We will continue to sponsor the same projects, programs and initiatives that Alfa has been supporting for many years, reaffirming our commitment to social responsibility.

1 Life Line – Extending a Helping Hand

Alfa-Bank launched the Life Line charity program on June 1, 2004 as an initiative of leading Russian companies and individuals who were concerned about the high mortality rates in Russia. It became a national charitable foundation in 2007.

The fund was founded to help children with serious illnesses that can be treated with state-of-the-art medical care. Life Line pays for the medical treatment of Russian children who are 15 years or younger suffering from life-threatening heart, brain and liver diseases. Every effort is made to ensure that the children receive the best treatment available. Life Line is a nation-wide charity, with all the funds raised by the program going to provide treatment for children in , St. Petersburg, Perm, Krasnodar, Tyumen, Samara, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Voronezh, Nizhniy Novgorod, Krasnoyarsk, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Murmansk, Khabarovsk, Syktyvkar, Volgograd, Ekaterinburg, Rostov and other cities.

In four short years, the Life Line Charity has saved the lives of more than 2,500 children across Russia. To date, the amount raised and spent on treating sick children totals $13 mln. The program provides funding for prescribed medical services and medicines necessary for the care of every Life Line patient. The proper use of the charity’s funds and the transparency of the program are guaranteed at all times.

In addition to private and corporate contributions, the Life Line program also raises funds to save the lives of sick children through the Give as You Earn program, an initiative designed for employees to contribute part of their wages. Any company can participate in the Life Line employee scheme and give their staff the opportunity to provide financial aid to children. Alfa-Bank was the first corporate participant in the Life Line program. Since August 2004, the Bank’s employees have managed to raise more than R6 mln and fund treatment for 81 children.

2 Alfa-Bank has supported the Life Line Charity, which provides financial assistance to critically ill children, for the past four years. The Bank acts as the corporate sponsor of the program and also provides opportunities for its employees to make individual donations. The Bank regularly holds events to raise extra funds for children in need of help as part of its support to the charity.

In December 2008, Alfa-Bank gave the money that was budgeted for promotional gifts Charity to the Life Line Charity. This will help the charity to purchase expensive cardiological Instead of Gifts equipment for several children who will undergo surgery in 2009.

In 2008, Life Line and Alfa-Bank launched a major joint project, enabling the Bank’s Extending customers to provide financial assistance to the charity for sick children. Since September a Helping Hand 2008, customers have been able to contribute to the charity using the Alfa-Click Internet Bank and bank transfers, with all money transfers free of bank charges. Updates on how the money is being spent are regularly posted on the Bank’s website. We are very grateful to our customers for their enthusiasm in supporting our initiative to provide financial assistance to the Life Line Charity - between September and December 2008 they donated about R2 mln. This was enough to provide state-of-the-art medical care for 22 children suffering from heart defects from all over Russia.

The New Year Charity Night held in Novosibirsk on 21 December 2008 was organized Charity Auction by Alfa-Bank, Russian Business Club and the “Honored Citizen of the Fatherland” Club. The key event of the evening was a charity auction of paintings by Novosibirsk artists donated by the Stary Gorod gallery and some pieces by children from the Zazerkalye art studio.

R3.5 mln was raised in total at the charity auction, which was attended by Alfa-Bank’s A-Club members. This was enough to fund the best possible medical care for 12 children.

In November 2007 the Bank launched a new corporate project, a monthly charity lottery The Golden Heart called “The Golden Heart of Alfa-Bank.” Everyone who makes donations using the Life Line of Alfa-Bank program can participate in the lottery. Prizes include tickets to events organized jointly by Alfa-Bank and the Life Line Charity.

3 Charity If we don’t help, who will? – Volunteer Initiatives at Alfa-Bank

Children’s Day — Moscow staff working in the Mortgage Lending block of the Bank and the Detskie Domiki Teambuilding Event Charity arranged an amazing event for children at the Korobcheevsky orphanage near for Alfa Bank’s Mortgage Lending Kolomna. The block’s partners also participated in this visit.

The guests brought gifts for the children, such as sports equipment, educational and entertaining games, and also three TVs and DVD players. Alfa-Bank’s Mortgage Lending block funded the construction of a playground at the orphanage. We hope that these facilities will be a long-lasting source of happiness for the kids.

Spring Day One initiative by Bank employees led to a visit to the Ivanovo Child Care Centre on March 5, 2008. Over a period of two weeks we collected money, gifts and other items for the children. As a result of efforts made by colleagues in our Moscow offices the children received clothes, diapers, sterilizers and, of course, toys. All of the collected cash was handed over to the volunteers collecting funds to purchase new furniture for the senior group of the Child Care Centre.

Christmas Miracle The main goal of the Christmas Miracle event was to provide material assistance Volunteering Event to parentless children at various remedial and educational institutions across Russia in the run up to the New Year and Christmas. Christmas Miracle spread far and wide across the whole country. Alfa-Bank employees visited children at 22 orphanages, childcare centers and boarding schools. All these children received thousands of toys, books, CDs, stationary and New Year gifts. Orphanages were refurbished and given new appliances out of the money collected by Bank employees.

This was not the first year that many departments within the Bank and their employees have personally helped out various children’s institutions. This is why the announcement of the launch of the Christmas Miracle event in Alfa-Navigator (our corporate intranet magazine) was met with great enthusiasm.

4 We are proud of our team at Alfa-Bank. Our employees are great, warm and generous people, many of whom support orphanages and childcare centers on a permanent basis. The Bank’s management endeavors to provide all kind of administrative and financial support to volunteer initiatives coming from the Bank’s employees from all corners of the country. Together we are building a civil society where no one ignores those unfortunate children who do not have parental support.

Charity If we don’t help, who will? – Volunteer Initiatives at Alfa-Bank

By supporting these events, the Bank’s management fosters the emergence of a volunteering movement within the company, which is the cornerstone of a good corporate responsibility policy in a large commercial entity.

The Bank continues its support to the Moscow charities it has aided over the years. These include Supporting Moscow the “Russian House of Childhood” charity, Moscow orphanage No. 6, Luberetsky Childhood Charities Non-Profit Organisation and Charitable Society “Maria”.

The Bank continues its support the Moscow charities it has aided over the years. These include the Russian House of Childhood charity, Moscow orphanage No. 6, Luberetsky Childhood Non-Profit Organisation and the Maria Charitable Society.

For more than 17 years the Maria Charitable Society has been offering financial support to lower-income families of Moscow police officers, including the families of police officers who died in the line of duty, the families of police officers with disabled children or children with serious long-term illnesses, large families, people suffering from disabilities after accidents, and veterans of the Moscow Department of Internal Affairs. As the longest- standing member of the charity, Alfa-Bank has been an active donor of numerous charity initiatives for over ten years.

In February 2002, a Board of Trustees was created in the Moscow Department of Internal Affairs to assist the Moscow police in implementing various initiatives and programs aimed at social and legal protection, improving the education and outlook of police employees in Moscow and their families, and also in order to enhance the reputation of police officers. Alfa-Bank has participated in the activity of the Board of Trustees from its very existence.

A major event organized by the Board in 2008 was the Moscow Police through an Objective Lens photo exhibition, where works by Moscow police officers depicting their daily routines were on display.

The November 2008 exhibition in the State Department Store (the GUM) on Red Square was a great success and gained a lot of publicity.

5 Living Memory On February 21, shortly before Defenders of the Fatherland, there was a gathering of Heroes Defenders of the Fatherland Day of the and their families and employees and executives from Alfa-Bank in Moscow. The evening was more a meeting of good friends than a formal event for the veterans. Alfa-Bank employees put on a concert and entertained the veterans by performing popular songs from the Second World War.

Conversation flowed freely to the accompaniment of wartime tunes such as Siny Platochek and Zemlyanka. The Bank’s executives gave their personal greetings to the veterans, who also received mementos of the evening. The evening ended on a high note, with everyone singing and dancing.

9 May Alfa-Bank celebrated Victory Day with concerts and festive parties in honor of the war veterans organized by the Bank’s staff in Volgograd, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, Irkutsk, Perm, Kazan, Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar, St. Petersburg, Kurgan, Samara, Lipetsk, Tyumen, Moscow, , Omsk, Khabarovsk, Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, Orsk and Yaroslavl.

Peaceful Report • In St. Petersburg, children put on concert for Heroes of the Soviet Union. The children danced, recited poetry and sang wartime songs and the veterans recollected tales from the war.

• In Rostov-on-Don, following a flower laying ceremony at the Eternal Flame, Heroes of the Soviet Union, a Cavalier of the Order of Glory and Chairmen of the Councils of Army Veterans dined together to celebrate Victory Day. The youngest was 83 and the oldest was 92.

• The Novosibirsk Branch and the regional Hospital of War Veterans celebrated with veterans at the Cinema movie house. During the evening Grigory Alexandrov’s musical Circus starring Lyubov Orlova was screened. There was also a buffet meal, and commemorative gifts were handed out.

• In Nizhniy Novgorod, war veterans came to the City Army Veterans’ Council Hall to see a performance by students of the Nizhniy Novgorod’s Theatre School.

• In Lipetsk, a party for war veterans was attended by Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Kirillov and Hero of Russia Yury Churilov. The veterans were offered the “frontline 100 grams of spirits” and refreshments to the accompaniment of famous wartime songs played on the accordion. The local branch has longstanding relations with war veterans and helps to preserve their deeds in the memory of later generations. There is a memorial plaque in honor of Dmitry Barashev, a Hero of the Soviet Union, at the branch.

• In Samara, Alfa-Bank’s City Branch hosted an evening for veterans and children from the Bank-sponsored boarding school No. 117. The schoolchildren listened to the memories of veterans with admiration, after which the guests sat down to dinner and the veterans were given the “traditional wartime 100 grams” and coupons to buy household appliances.

6 • For the third year in a row the Orenburg office and the local Legislative Assembly bought medical equipment for the Hospital of Veterans of the Great Patriotic War and Local Conflicts fore Victory Day.

• The Omsk Branch organized a celebratory evening for veterans. They watched a film in the Mayakovsky cinema house and received food hampers.

• In Tyumen, at a party, which was jointly organized with enthusiasts from the city Veterans’ Club, war veterans listened to wartime songs and poems, and they were given gifts and a meal.

• The Kurgan Branch invited veterans to a concert hosted by children’s groups in the city’s drama theatre. The veterans were presented with blood pressure monitors, and then took part in a festive party arranged for them.

• In Perm, the Bank’s representatives held a party for veterans of Perm Motor Plants and Kamkabel. They were presented with medical service certificates.

• The Ekaterinburg Branch organized a concert for veterans with the Sverdlovsk State Children’s Philharmonic Society, after which the veterans were provided with a meal.

• The Ufa Branch entertained veterans with a march performed by a local brass band. The war veterans were presented with thank-you notes and presents, including medical equipment and household appliances.

• In Irkutsk, the children’s dancing group Zhemchuzhinka danced for the veterans, followed by a performance of wartime songs by Branch employees accompanied by the accordion and then gifts were handed out.

• In Orsk, each veteran who is member of the Great Patriotic War Veterans’ Committee of Orsk was presented with a gift voucher from the Orsk city pharmacy chain.

• For the fifth time running, the staff of Alfa-Bank in Yaroslavl held a party for war veterans on Victory Day. In line with tradition, the event was warm and friendly, and the veterans shared their memories of their wartime experiences.

• In Khabarovsk, a meal was laid on for the Great Patriotic War veterans at the Regional Veterans’ House. The veterans who fought for future generations of Russians were treated to an evening of poetry, songs and dancing performed by children and youth groups.

• In Chelyabinsk, the Bank’s employees and Chairman of the Regional Veterans’ Council Anatoly Surkov visited Full Cavalier of three classes of the Order of Glory – Fedor Maslin to wish him all the best on Victory Day. The city Branch also provided assistance to the regional Veterans’ Council in setting up a museum of military honor.

• In Moscow, veterans from the Zvezda fund supporting Heroes of the Soviet Union headed by the general-lieutenant Yury Zarudin, who himself is a Hero, were visited by the Bank employees as well as children from the Lyuberetsky Childhood Regional Organization. It was a great evening in a family atmosphere with tea and pies during which the general and others shared their war memories with the youngsters.

7 International Alfa-Bank Programmes

Alfa Fellowship The Alfa Fellowship Program, which provides internships for US specialists with great career potential in Russia was set up in 2004, and is one of the Bank’s initiatives aimed at promoting and reinforcing social and cultural relations between Russian and the US.

The program is coordinated by an advisory board headed by Petr Aven, President of Alfa-Bank. Members of the Program’s Advisory Board include Konstantin Kosachev, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Yevgeni Yasin, Rector of the Higher School of Economics and Vladimir Pozner, President of the Russian TV Academy.

The Alfa Fellowship Program was created in the fashion of the Bosch Fellowship program, which has been going between the USA and since the 1950s. The Alfa Fellowship program aims to promote and reinforce social and cultural relations between Russia and the US. Candidates competing for the internship are selected in New York by the international leader of the organization of professional fellowship — CDS International. The selection’s objective is to reveal the workforce capacity of the competitors. In Russia, the Alfa Fellowship program is overseen by the Centre for International Fellowships. Participants spend 11 months in Russia: they study the with the leading educational institutions of Moscow, attend workshops and tour Russia’s regions and other CIS countries. Over the program’s lifetime, young specialists from the US have visited Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Novgorod, Novorossiysk, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Tambov, Cheboksary and Irkutsk. Interns have met members of the Russian Government, the State Duma, heads of regional

8 Alfa-Bank prioritizes the development of programs aimed at strengthening international cooperation ties. A great example of this is the Alfa Fellowship program, which allows young American professionals to get acquainted with Russia. Also the Bank, jointly with the Oxford University Business School, awards annual prizes to foreign investors who make significant contributions to the development of foreign investment in Russia.

administrations, editors-in-chief of the leading publications, cultural figures, executives from Consortium and leading Russian businessmen. Participants take internships in private companies and in Russian state and public institutions, such as State University Higher School of Economics, the Expert Institute at the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Carnegie Endowment, Echo Moskvy radio station, Expert magazine, Alfa Capital, TNK-BP, INDEM Foundation, Microsoft Russian, McKinsey and others.

On their return home, participants continue their careers as managers and executives with different entities in the US, both commercial enterprises and public bodies. This enables them to take part in decision-making associated with economic, legal and political interaction with Russia, taking advantage of their experience. The program is invariably supported by public authorities both in Russia and the US, including the State Duma, the Russian Ministry of the Interior, the Russian Embassy to the US, the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN, the US Embassy to the Russian Federation, and the US Chamber of Commerce.

In April 2008, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Alfa Group Consortium, met the American specialists participating in the Alfa Fellowship Program. The interns thanked the Bank for the well-organized workshops, shared their impressions of visiting Russian cities and spoke of the results of their internship. They also shared their career plans. The Program’s participants and organizers are especially proud of the complimentary address they received from the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergei Lavrov, who greeted the program graduates and underlined the importance of the Alfa Fellowship Program as instrumental in strengthening business and political ties between Russia and the US. The program is actively linked to the Department of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs for the US and Canada.

9 In September 2008, the group met the Russian Ambassador to the US, Sergei Kislyak, before he assumed office in Washington. At an annual meeting with the program Fellows held in October 2008, the President of the US Chamber of Commerce, Andrew Somers, spoke of the positive effect the program has had on the relationship between our countries in this complicated period.

“It is extremely important to create an objective notion of Russia in the global community for the constructive evolvement of international relations in the modern world. The Alfa Fellowship Program promotes better understanding of Russian economic and political realia. These days we not only continue our support to the program, but also expand it. Beginning from 2009, the program will include participants from the UK as well as the US”, said Mikhail Fridman, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Alfa Group Consortium.

Alfa-Bank and In 2008, Alfa-Bank and the Oxford Said Business School awarded Intel with the “Foreign Oxford University Investment into Russia” award. The annual award is given to a foreign company operating Business School Award Intel for Investment in Russia, which best combines successful business operations with a significant contribution in Russia towards the promotion of high corporate governance standards in Russia. The Award was created in 2003 and was granted for the sixth time in 2008. Past winners include Procter & Gamble (2003), Nestle' (2004), United Technologies (2005), AG (2006) and General Motors (2007).

The winner is selected by a distinguished international jury, with members including Petr Aven, the President of Alfa-Bank, Richard Burt, former US Ambassador to Germany, Yegor Gaidar, Director of the Institute for the Economy in Transition and Dana Brown, University Lecturer from the Oxford Said Business School.

Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Alfa Group Consortium Mikhail Fridman presented the Award to Intel at a reception held on 9 October 2008. The ceremony was attended by more

10 than 150 leaders of Russian and Western companies, clients and partners of Alfa-Bank, representatives of NGOs and Russian media. Rudolph Giuliani, Mayor of New York from 1994 to 2001, and the evening’s guest of honor, gave the keynote address.

“We are very pleased to receive this award from distinguished representatives of current-day business – Alfa-Bank and the Oxford University Business School,” said Intel Corporation Director for Russia and the CIS Dmitry Konash. “This prize is proof that our activity has won recognition in Russia; it gives us an incentive to move forward and continue the implementation of our initiatives in the sphere of using IT in education, wireless internet technology, research and development and investment in scientific research”.

11 Future Generations – Our Gold

Alfa Chance: Throughout its history, Alfa-Bank has provided assistance to programs aimed at helping Building the Intellectual gifted young people. In 1995, Alfa-Bank set itself the goal of selecting the most gifted Future of Russia school graduates from regional Russian schools and giving them a chance to obtain higher education in the best universities and colleges of Moscow and St. Petersburg. So far, the finalists of two Alfa Chance competitions have graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Affairs, , Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics, International High School, Academy of Finance and Moscow State Linguistics University and successfully started their carriers. Many of them have already made significant professional achievements in major companies and state bodies. The emergence of the Alfa Chance program was the result of the past experiences of the Bank’s management, who became successful thanks to their persistence, energy and motivation and these are exactly the qualities looked for in Alfa Chance scholars. The most recent competition was held in September 2008. This year, Alfa Chance obtained a new partner: the State University High School of Economics. Alfa-Bank supported the all-Russian academic competition among schoolchildren and multi-disciplinary academic competition held by the University that served as the primary tool to select students for the Bank’s scholarship. Every winner of the academic competitions, who entered state-budgeted sections of 14 departments in the University and who reside outside of Moscow or St. Petersburg, participated in the first round of selection: the “competition of personal files.” 132 freshmen submitted their documents for selection, of which 102 were picked out by the competition’s admission board and invited to participate in the second round during which they had to write anessay on the subject: “Each generation doubtless feels called upon to reform the world” — a quote from French writer, philosopher and Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus.

Those with the best credits on the basis of the two rounds of the competition faced a strict jury panel consisting of pro-rectors and lecturers from the State University High School of Economics, headed by Leonid Ignat, Director for Communications and PR at Alfa-Bank.

“The size of our competition is astonishing – our contenders came to Moscow from various places scattered across the country from Dimitrovgrad and Nizhniy Novgorod to Yakutia and Vladikavkaz. All these kids are really very talented. Out of them we had to choose 20, who we

12 Supporting new talent and professionally assisting potential future specialists is a fundamental part of Alfa-Bank’s social policy. The specially developed Alfa Chance program, competitions and general support to talented young people help to achieve these important goals. The future of these young people is, after all, the future of Russia.

hope to assist in becoming high-class specialists in various spheres. And they really need our assistance – it is well-known that the first two years in higher education are an ordeal for students – they shift to a new system of learning, are stressed by an enormous intellectual load and difficult living conditions far away from their family. It is here that Alfa-Bank comes to the rescue by paying, I must emphasize, the biggest personal scholarship in Russia of 10,000 rubles per month,” said Leonid Ignat.

Moreover, the Alfa Chance scholarship is only one component of the program. The young people are also looked after by the Bank’s employees and meet Alfa Group and Alfa-Bank executives on a regular basis. One such meeting took place on 26 January 2009: first-year students celebrated the student’s saint’s day, St. ’s Day, with the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Alfa Group Consortium Mikhail Fridman and Chairman of Alfa-Bank’s Executive Board Rushan Khvesyuk.

The tenth anniversary of the “Unique Nizhniy Novgorod Talent” competition was held in March. Unique Nizhniy It is a joint project of the N.I. Lobachevsky State University of Nizhniy Novgorod and the “Birzha” Novgorod Talent Publishing Group. For the sixth year running, the competition has enjoyed the financial support and organizational assistance of Alfa-Bank.

The competition has been held annually since 1998, over this time more than 6,000 works were submitted for extra-mural selection by talented authors from Nizhniy Novgorod, Arkhangelsk, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Kostroma, Kirov, Ryazan and Yaroslavl Regions, the Perm and Stavropol Territories, the Republics of Mari El, Tatarstan, Udmurtia and Chuvashia.

This year, at the award ceremony, held in the conference hall of the main library of Nizhniy Novgorod’s University, the winners received 48 honorary diplomas and symbolic student cards of the University, 91 certificates of merit and commemorative gifts from partners of the competition. Three participants were awarded special prize – certificates enabling them to get on-the-job training at Alfa-Bank, with grants supplied by managers of the Bank’s Nizhniy Novgorod Branch.

13 Alfa-Bank Presents…

Celebrities on Stage 2008 saw Alfa-Bank launch a new joint project with B1 Maximum, a music club, that brought at B1 Maximum to Moscow celebrated Russian and foreign performers. Alfa-Bank sponsored all the events held as part of the project, offering Muscovites an opportunity to see world-famous celebrities on stage at B1 Maximum: Patti Smith, Iggy Pop & The Stooges, Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra and Russian rock legends including Garik Sukachev, Mashina Vremeni, Akvarium, Agata Kristi, Nochnye Snaipery and Spleen. B1 Maximum is one of the best performance venues in Moscow, able to host the city’s most exciting musical events.

Mashina Vremeni On February 13, the Mir cinema and concert hall in Barnaul hosted a performance by Mashina in Barnaul Vremeny sponsored by Alfa-Bank. The group played its greatest hits along with new songs from its latest album, Time Machine. After the concert, a group of Alfa-Bank clients had the chance to meet the musicians. At the gathering, Vladimir Chernobrovin, Corporate Business Director of Alfa-Bank’s Barnaul branch, expressed his gratitude to the band. The leader of Mashina Vremeny, Andrei Makarevich, praised Alfa-Bank’s efforts to bring internationally renowned stars to Russia.

Dmitri Khvorostovsky Dmitri Khvorostovsky, with an orchestra under the leadership of Konstantin Orbelyan, gave in Volgograd a concert in Volgograd dedicated to the anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad. Alfa-Bank invited more than 40 veterans of the battle to the event, at which Dmitri Khvorostovsky sang some of Russia’s most popular wartime songs and performed an encore of Ochi Chernye and Noch Svetla. At a reception after the concert, local politicians and Alfa-Bank clients thanked the Bank for giving them the chance to hear one of the world’s best baritones.

Real Jazz On October 15 of last year, the Platinum Arena – Khabarovsk’s premiere concert hall in Khabarovsk –presented a joint concert by Igor Butman and Larisa Dolina, the latest of several occasions

14 Each year Alfa-Bank makes it possible for people in all corners of Russia to see the best local and international performers. When planning its latest surprise for the Russian public, the Bank seeks out the most interesting projects, the most popular celebrities and the most talented actors and singers. We bring pop stars and famous rock groups, jazz improvisations and classical concerts, spectacular dancing and great theatrical events of the season to all of Russia’s time zones, from Kaliningrad to Khabarovsk.

on which Mr. Butman has brought celebrated jazz performers to Russian regions with the support of Alfa-Bank. This year, residents of the Russian Far East had an outstanding opportunity to relish not only the mastery and fine sound of Igor Butman’s Big Band, but also the inimitable beauty of Larisa Dolina’s singing. At a press conference following the concert, Ms. Dolina noted that the soul is the essence of any jazz piece. The same is true of all socially-oriented activities undertaken by Alfa-Bank.

On October 28, with support from Alfa-Bank, Tyumen welcomed legendary Scottish rock Rock Classics: group Nazareth. The Tyumen concert kicked off the group’s tour across Russia to mark its Nazareth in Tyumen 40th anniversary. At a press conference before the show, group leader Den McCafferty answered reporters’ questions and spoke about the group’s plans for the future. Alfa-Bank was represented by Dmitry Krylov, Vice-President and head of the department for relations with regional authorities, who said: “We could not miss out on such a momentous event as a tour of the legendary band Nazareth. Their music has been a source of delight for several generations. The concert proved that rock veterans are still able to attract huge audiences and that this type of music has a timeless appeal.” During the concert, Nazareth performed their classic hits as well as songs from their new album. Of course, the band was called to play an encore.

In April 2008, the Krasnoyarsk sports palace hosted a hugely successful concert The Scorpions by the legendary Scorpions. The two and a half hours of live sound, Klaus Meine’s in Krasnoyarsk inimitable vocals and the raw energy of genuine rock & roll are sure to leave a lasting impression on all who were present at the show.

At a press conference after the concert, Leonid Ignat, Alfa-Bank’s Director of Communications and PR, noted that for many years Alfa-Bank had been arranging for Western celebrities to appear in Russia as well as introducing Russia’s best performers to the world. “We are now making more of an effort to sponsor tours by Western stars in Russian regions, which is why we decided to support The Scorpions’ performance in Krasnoyarsk,” Mr. Ignat noted.

15 Art and culture are our two greatest treasures. Alfa-Bank believes that supporting Russian art is one of its most important areas of social involvement. Projects sponsored by the Bank in 2008 included theatrical events, art exhibitions, national competitions and many others. Alfa has been working with some of the organizations involved for many years.

“We think that our relationship with the musical world benefits us greatly.” For his part, Klaus Meine noted that never in his wildest dreams did he imagine he would ever perform the Scorpions’ music in Siberia.

The Kings of the Dance In November, Novosibirsk was able to see a guest performance by the world-famous Kings of the in N