Exhibit 4.8


                               FORM OF ASSIGNMENT

THIS ASSIGNMENT is signed on February 12, 2004 between:

(1)  OPEN JOINT STOCK COMPANY RTC-LEASING (the "Assignor"), located at: 5
     Delegatskaya Street, Moscow 127091, Russian Federation, represented by
     General Director Mikhail Grigorievich Trufanov acting pursuant to the
     Charter, and

(2)  CLOSED JOINT STOCK COMPANY WESTELCOM ("Assignee"), located at: 26,
     Suschevskiy val, Moscow 127018, Russian Federation, represented by General
     Director Armen Grantovich Avakian acting pursuant to the Charter

(jointly referred to as the "Parties" and separately, as a "Party").

WHEREAS:

     -    The Assignor owns the rights to receive monetary funds from Open Joint
          Stock Company of Long Distance and International Telecommunications
          Rostelecom located at: 5, Delegatskaya Street, Moscow 127091, Russian
          Federation (OJSC Rostelecom), under the Novation Agreement as it
          defined below;

     -    The Assignor desires to transfer to the Assignee, and the Assignee
          intends to acquire from the Assignor, the rights specified above;

     -    Rostelecom has given its consent to the transfer of the specified
          rights from the Assignor to the Assignee;

     THE PARTIES AGREE AS FOLLOWS:

1.   DEFINITIONS AND CONSTRUCTION

1.1  Definitions

When used in this Assignment, the following terms have the following meanings:

"Assignment Date" means the Business Day following the date on which the term of
the Assignment coming into force is met in accordance with Article 6.

"Borrower's Obligations" means Rostelecom's obligations, determined in the
Novation Agreement, to pay, on the terms and conditions of the Novation
Agreement, the Assignor a sum of money totaling [amount] as well as the interest
charged on such amount;

"Business Day" means any day, other than Saturday and Sunday and any other day
on which banks in Moscow, Russian Federation, are authorized or obliged to
close.

"OJSC Rostelecom" has the meaning defined in the Preamble.

"Novation Agreement" means the Agreement made between OJsC RTC-Leasing and OJSC
Rostelecom on 29 January 2004 on novation of the obligations under the
Financial Lease Agreement No. [number] dated [date];
<PAGE>

"Assignment Notice" means the assignment notice in the form and with contents of
Exhibit 1;

"Assigned Rights" means the rights specified in Article 1.1.

"Assignment Price" has the meaning defined in Article 2.1.

1.2  Construction

In this Assignment, unless its contents directly require otherwise:

(i)   words denoting the singular include the plural and vice versa;

(ii)  headings in the text of this Assignment are inserted for convenience of
      use only and shall not affect the interpretation of this Assignment;

(iii) a reference to an Article, Preamble, Party and Exhibit shall be a
      reference to a respective Article, Preamble and Party of this Assignment
      as well as to the Exhibit to this Assignment;

(iv)  a reference to a person shall include a reference to an individual, joint
      stock company, limited liability company, commonwealth, company,
      partnership, corporation, association or any other corporate entity and
      any government or municipal authority;

(v)   a reference to a person shall also include a reference to the legal and
      contractual successors to such person.

Article 1.  Assignment

1.1  The Assignor hereby assigns, as from the Assignment Date, to the Assignee
     all the Assignor's rights with respect to all the Borrower's Obligations,
     including the right to receive the amount of the principal debt, the right
     to receive the interest charged as of the date of creation of the
     Borrower's Obligations (save the interest paid by OJSC Rostelecom by the
     Assignment Date), the right to receive the interest due to be charged as
     well as the right to receive a penalty chargeable as a result of
     OJSC Rostelecom default on the Borrower's Obligations in part or in full.

1.2  The Assignor hereby transfers to Assignee, and the Assignee assumes, the
     same obligations with respect to Rostelecom which the Assignee would have
     if it were an initial creditor under the Borrower's Obligations.

1.3  On the Assignment Date, the Assignor shall fully withdraw from the legal
     relationship which originated from the Novation Agreement, and the Assignee
     shall enter into such legal relationship and become a creditor under the
     Borrower's Obligations.

Article 2.  Payments

2.1  For the Assigned Rights, the Assignee undertakes to pay the Assignor
     [amount] (the "Assignment Price") within thirty (30) Business Days of the
     Assignment Date.

2.2  The Assignee's obligations on payment of the Assignment Price shall be
     deemed fulfilled as from the moment when the monetary funds are entered to
     the correspondent account in the bank specified by the Assignor.

Article 3.  Transfer of documents

     The Assignor undertakes to transfer to the Assignee, within three (3)
     Business Days of the Assignment Date, an original copy of the Novation
     Agreement, an original copy of the relevant lease agreement made between
     the Assignor and OJCS Rostelecom, as well as any other

                                       2
<PAGE>

     documents, which, in the reasonable opinion of the Assignor, are related to
     the Borrower's Obligations. As a confirmation of the transfer of the
     documents specified in this Article 3 above, the Parties shall execute and
     sign an acknowledgement in the form of Exhibit 2.

Article 4.  Assignment Notice

     The Assignor and Assignee undertake to sign the Assignment Notice within
     three (3) Business Days of the Assignment Date, and the Assignee undertakes
     to provide for the transfer of the Assignment Agreement to OJSC Rostelecom.

Article 5.  Liability

     In case of the Assignee's default on its obligations, specified in Article
     2.1, in respect of making full and timely payment of the Assignment Price,
     the Assignor shall be entitled to require the Assignee to pay a late
     penalty calculated at the rate of zero point zero three percent (0.03%) of
     the amount of the overdue payment for each day of the delay and the
     Assignee shall be liable to pay such penalty within ten (10) Business Days
     following the date of a relevant request. The above penalty shall accrue
     until the date of the actual making of the payment by the Assignee.

Article 6.  Entry into Force

     This Assignment shall enter into force (i) provided the Assignee shall, not
     later than one hundred twenty (120) days of the date of signing of this
     Assignment, have received a preliminary consent of the Ministry of
     Anti-Monopoly Policy and Support to Entrepreneurship of the Russian
     Federation to the acquisition of the Assigned Rights, (ii) on the day when
     the preliminary consent specified above is received.

Article 7.  Notices

     Any notice or any other communication under this Assignment or in
     connection herewith must be made in writing and delivered either in person
     or sent by registered mail or tested facsimile communication with
     confirmation of its receipt at the correct number of the Party which is to
     receive the notification or communication at its address specified in this
     Article 7 or at any other address specified by such Party in a written
     notice to the other Party.

     For the Assignor:

     OJSC RTC-LEASING 42, Schepkina Street, bldg. 2A
     Moscow 129110,
     Russian Federation
     Fax: (095) 777-0333
     Attention: General Director

     For the Assignee:

     CJSC Westelcom
     26 Suschevskiy val
     Moscow 127018
     Russian Federation
     Fax: (095) 727-0046
     Attention: General Director

                                       3
<PAGE>

Article 8.  Transfer of Rights and Obligations to Third Parties

     Neither Party is entitled to assign or transfer its rights and obligations
     under this Assignment to third parties without preliminary written consent
     of the other Party.

Article 9.  Confidentiality

9.1  Without prejudice to provisions of Article 9.2, each of the Parties within
     the term of this Assignment undertakes to keep confidentiality in respect
     of the contents of this Assignment as well as the contents of any
     information concerning business relations, counterparties, financial and
     other aspects of the Parties' activities; at that, neither Party is
     entitled, without preliminary written consent of the other Party, to
     disclose directly or indirectly the contents of such information in part or
     in full, other than information disclosed: (i) by virtue of the direct
     requirements of law or stock exchange regulations and/or (ii) to its
     officials as well as the employees engaged by the Parties into the
     execution and performance of this Assignment and/or (iii) to legal and
     financial consultants providing services to any of the Parties, provided
     that such consultants must undertake not to disclose the contents of such
     information to other parties, and/or (iv) becomes generally known for a
     reason not related to violation of paragraphs (i), (ii) and (iii) set out
     above.

9.2  Neither of the Parties is entitled to present publicly any reports, make
     any statements or publish any press releases concerning this Assignment for
     the general public without preliminary consent of the other Party, which
     consent shall not be unreasonably withheld. If either of the Parties is
     unable to receive the other Party's consent to a public report, statement
     or press-release and such report, statement or press-release are necessary
     by virtue of law, requirements of governmental bodies, stock exchange
     regulations or accepted practice for the purposes of performing obligations
     on disclosure, then such Party shall be entitled to present, make or
     publish such report, statement or press-release and to promptly send to the
     other Party a copy of the documents specified above.

Article 10. Force Majeure

10.1 In the event that any of the Parties is unable to perform its obligations
     under the Assignment for the reason of inception of any event or
     circumstance beyond of such Party's control, which event or circumstances
     could not be foreseen as of the date of this Assignment and which include,
     inter alia, any change of the applicable legislation as well as any action
     or inaction by governmental authorities, then the term of performance by
     such Party of its obligations under this Assignment shall be prolonged for
     a period during which such circumstance or event are in effect.

10.2 Neither of the Parties is entitled to refer to the circumstances or events
     specified in Article 10.1 above if such Party shall have failed to notify
     the other Party of such circumstances or events within ten (10) Business
     Days of the date of inception thereof.

Article 11.  Dispute Resolution

     Should any controversies arise in connection with the performance of
     obligations under this Assignment, the Parties shall apply their best
     efforts to resolve the disputes through negotiations. In the event that the
     Parties are unable to reach a settlement on the subject matter of a dispute
     within sixty (60) days since the date the negotiations commenced, such
     dispute shall be referred for resolution to the Arbitrazh Court of the City
     of Moscow.

                                       4
<PAGE>

Article 12.  Miscellaneous

12.1 Each Party shall independently pay its costs and expenses incurred in
     connection with the Parties' negotiation, preparation, signing and
     performance of this Assignment.

12.2 Amendments and supplements to this Assignment shall be legally valid
     provided they are made in writing and signed by duly authorized
     representatives of the Parties.

12.3 This Assignment is made in two copies having equal legal force, one copy
     for each Party.

In witness whereof this Assignment is signed by duly authorized representatives
of the Parties on the date first written above:

On behalf of the Assignor                         On behalf of the Assignee

-----------------------------------               ------------------------------
Mikhail Grigorievich Trufanov                     Armen Grantovich Avakian
General Director                                  General Director

-----------------------------------               ------------------------------
Natalia Yevgenievna Kolesnikova                   Ekaterina Mikhailovna Lapshina
Chief Accountant                                  Chief Accountant
Seal                                              Seal

                                       5
<PAGE>

                 Exhibit 1 to the Assignment of 12 February 2004

                            FORM OF ASSIGNMENT NOTICE

OJSC "Rostelecom"
14, 1-ya Tverskaya-Yamskaya
Moscow 125047
Russian Federation
Attention: General Director

                                                               ____________ 2004

Dear Sirs,

We hereby notify you that in accordance with the Assignment between Open Joint
Stock Company RTC-Leasing ("RTC-Leasing") and Closed Joint Stock Company
Westelcom ("Westelcom"), dated ___________ 2004, RTC-Leasing transferred to
CJSC Westelcom, on __________ 2004 (the "Assignment Date"), all the rights and
obligations under the agreement made between OJSC RTC-Leasing and OJSC
Rostelecom on 29 January 2004 on novation of obligations under Financial Lease
Agreement No. ______, dated __________ ("Novation Agreement"), which created the
obligation of OJSC Rostelecom to pay ________ roubles (exclusive of interest).

In this connection, you are obliged, as from the Assignment Date, to perform all
the monetary obligations corresponding to RTC-Leasing rights' under the Novation
Agreement, in favour of Westelcom.


On behalf of the Assignor                        On behalf of the Assignee

----------------------------                     -------------------------------
General Director                                 General Director
Seal                                             Seal

                                       6
<PAGE>

                 Exhibit 2 to the Assignment of 12 February 2004

                             FORM OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
                     OF ACCEPTANCE AND TRANSFER OF DOCUMENTS

City of Moscow                                                 ____________ 2004

OPEN JOINT STOCK COMPANY RTC-LEASING (the "Assignor"), located at: 5
Delegatskaya Street, Moscow 127091, Russian Federation, represented by General
Director ____________________ acting pursuant to the Charter, and

CLOSED JOINT STOCK COMPANY WESTELCOM (the "Assignee"), located at: 26
Suschevskiy val, Moscow 127018, Russian Federation, represented by General
Director ______________________________ acting pursuant to the Charter,

Pursuant to Article 3 of the Assignment of ___________ 2004, executed this
acknowledgment of acceptance and transfer of documents on the following:

The Assignor has transferred, and the Assignee has accepted, the following
documents:

(1)
(2)
(3)


On behalf of the Assignor                              On behalf of the Assignee

-------------------------                              -------------------------
-------------------------                              -------------------------
General Director                                       General Director

Seal                                                   Seal

                                       7