Alfa subsidiary Eco Telecom said in its SEC filing that it approached Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service on May 23 for approval to increase its ownership of VimpelCom's voting stock from the current 33% as it "would like to obtain control" of the company.

VimpelCom's other major shareholder is Norway's Telenor ASA (TELN), which owns 27% of Russia's No. 2 cellular operator. Earlier this month, Telenor made a similar SEC filing, asking for permission to increase its stake in VimpelCom to 45%. Alfa and Telenor have been locked in a dispute for most of this year over VimpelCom's potential acquisition of Ukrainian RadioSystems. Alfa supports the purchase, but Telenor is against the deal as it would put VimpelCom into direct competition with Ukraine's second-largest mobile operator Kievstar, in which Telenor owns 55% and Alfa 45%. Many local analysts believe the dispute can only be solved by one of the shareholders exiting VimpelCom.

© Andrew Langley, "Dow Jones Newswires"