Founded in December 1996, Cityline, a specialist provider of Internet technology (ISP

Internet service provider

An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...

), was one of the first major Internet providers in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 and across Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

.
The founders of this limited company comprise a list of leading Russian businessmen:

• Emelyan Zakharov, the renowned Moscow art dealer
• Demyan Kudryavcev, chief executive of the major publishing house Commersant
• Georgy Shuppe, the former president of Cityline.
• Dmitriy Bosov; owner of the large investment company Alltech
• Rafael Filinov; currently Chairman of the privately held corporation Djeruialtin.

The line-up is completed by a major European investment company.


Cityline provided its services to such blue chip names as Mercedes, Vist, Soyuz and Computer Land.


In 1997 Cityline, in association with Mr. Sergey Skatershikov, founded Netskate, the company that owned a dozen of the most popular websites from the early period of Runet

Runet

Currently Internet access in Russia is available to businesses and home users in various forms, including dial-up, cable, DSL, FTTH, mobile, wireless and satellite...

, one of which was the leading Russian ‘Web Design’ studio of Artemy Lebedev.


Cityline was one of the first companies in Russia to enter into a cooperation agreement with Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

 as an official Internet-provider for Windows 98

Windows 98

Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...

 and its Small Business Server packages

Microsoft Small Business Server

Windows Small Business Server is an integrated server suite from Microsoft designed for running network infrastructure of small and medium enterprises having no more than 75 workstations or users...

 .


By 2001 Cityline had 100 000 subscribers and was bought out for $29 million by the international telecommunications company Golden Telecom

Golden Telecom

Golden Telecom is a trademark of EDN Sovintel, LLC , of Russia.In 2008, Sovintel was acquired by Vimpelcom .-Golden Telecom Inc.:Golden Telecom Inc. is an offshore company to support operations of Golden Telecom.-History:...

 that had been founded by the global corporation Global Telesystems .