MTS (Mobile TeleSystems) is Russia’s largest mobile operator, with more than 86 million mobile subscribers across Russia and Belarus. The company was founded on October 28, 1993, as a joint venture between the Moscow City Telephone Network, Deutsche Telekom (through its DeTeMobil subsidiary), Siemens, and several smaller Russian shareholders. MTS is majority-owned by Sistema, Russia’s largest publicly traded diversified holding company. The core telecommunications business and retail network retained the MTS name throughout a 2024-2026 corporate reorganization that spun off the company’s non-telecom businesses, including media and entertainment, fintech, advertising technology, and kickscooter-sharing, into a separate holding structure. ON Media, the parent of the media assets involved in cooperation agreements with China Media Group, is among the businesses that passed through this restructuring.