The dissolution of the Soviet Union several years ago had left the newly independent states of the CIS without publicly available communications means except for the outdated archaic telephone system. Wide area computer networks, but for dial up UUCP introduced by one or two commercial companies, where unheard of and e-mail was the only means of communication for scientists and interested individuals. And even this service was affordable to only a few organizations due to the high per kilobyte traffic rates charged by the service-providing monopolies. This situation held during the initial economy transition period and started slowly changing about two years ago, when a number of previously unheard of academic and research networks emerged (not without the support of the world networking community) primarily in Moscow. In mid 1993 the stage was entered by the International Science Foundation (ISF), a charitable organization founded by George Soros and targeted at the support of basic sciences in the FSU. Understanding of the importance of unimpeded communications for scientists led to the set up of of the Telecommunications Program (ISF-TP) in the structure of the Foundation.