Mail.Ru Group [LSE: MAIL], one of the largest Internet companies in the high-growth Russian-speaking Internet market, announces Petr Mitrichev from Moscow as the winner of the 2011 Russian Code Cup Competition and recipient of the 10, 000 US dollar prize.

Second place, with a prize of 5,000 dollars went to Evgeniy Kapun from St.Petersburg while Mikhail Dvorkin from St.Petersburg finished in third place with a prize of 3,000 dollars.

“Сreating a favourable environment for growing the powerful personnel reserve is the key to establishing a globally competitive Russian IT industry”, - said Dmitry Grishin, CEO of Mail.Ru Group at the awards ceremony.

“We are very pleased to have gathered the most talented programmers here in Moscow. We attracted young talent not only from Russia and neighboring countries but also from Switzerland and the USA who took part in the final competition. I’m very pleased to congratulate Petr Mitrichev with the well-deserved victory, he solved very complex tasks in record time!” – claimed Mr.Grishin.

The final of the inaugural Russian Code Cup Olympics was held on 18 September 2011 with 50 of the most talented programmers from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Switzerland and the USA visiting Moscow to participate in the international competition.

More than 3,000 programmers took part in the initial qualifying round of the competition, with 600 participants proceeding to the elimination round. All of qualifying competitors received consolation prizes and the finalists were awarded with valuable gifts.

The tasks for Russia's first annual Olympics for programmers have been designed by the leading experts of the St. Petersburg State University of IT, Mechanics and Optics (SPBSU ITMO). The SPBSU ITMO team is a multiple winner of the World Cup ACM ICPC Founder’s Award in sports programming.

The All-Russian Cup has been overseen by Andrew Stankevich. Andrew is an Associate Professor of Computer Technologies at SPBSU ITMO. He is also the winner of multiple prestigious awards including the President of the Russian Federation Award in the field of education, the ACM-ICPC Founder's Award and also the special award at IBM for excellence in coaching.
Mail.Ru Group and ITMO also provide technical support for the Russian Code Cup.

Russian Code Cup

Russia's first annual Olympics for programmers of the Russian Internet of which there are three stages of competition. The qualifying and elimination rounds are held online while the finals require the personal presence of the participants on-site.

This year 50 programmers - 27 from Russia, 11 from Ukraine, 7 from Belarus, 2 from the United States and one each from Armenia, Georgia and Switzerland made it to the final of the Olympiad.

Mail.Ru Group intends to hold a Russian Code Cup every year.

Further information on the Russian Code Cup can be found on - http://russiancodecup.ru.

About Mail.Ru Group

Mail.ru Group is the largest Internet company in the high-growth Russian-speaking Internet markets based on monthly unique users. The Company incorporates Russia’s leading email service (Mail.ru and  the two largest Instant Messaging (“IM”) networks in Russia (Agent and ICQ).

Mail.ru Group operates two largest Russian language online social networking sites (Odnoklassniki and Moi Mir (or “My World”)).  The Company also holds strategic minority equity stakes in vKontakte.

In addition, Mail.Ru Group develops popular and in demand e-commerce services among which worth mentioning payment system Money@Mail.Ru, which is a convenient and fast way to pay for goods and services.

Mail.Ru Group is the market leader of online games and operates many popular client-and browser-based MMORPG, as well as games for social networks.

Contacts:
Mail.Ru Group Press Department
E-mail: pr@corp.mail.ru  
Tel.: +7 (495) 725-63-57