The agency said bids will be accepted for 30 days following the announcement, the main selection criteria being the quality of services and their price.
The start-up price of the contract has been established at 4 million rubles ($148,000), including VAT.
The government said earlier it will sell its 23% voting stake in the Moscow fixed-line phone monopoly at a price higher than the 490 rubles per share ($18.35) previously offered by Comstar United Telesystems telecoms holding.
MGTS is one of the largest fixed-line operators in Russia, with an installed capacity of about 4.4 million telephone numbers. The company's share of the Moscow fixed line telecoms market is about 80%.
The Information Technologies Ministry and the Economic Development and Trade Ministry have long pushed for selling the government's stake in MGTS over its falling liquidity, but fears that the move might devaluate Svyazinvest in view of the upcoming privatization have suspended a government decision.
Comstar UTS, a private telecoms operator that holds a controlling stake in MGTS, made an offer in mid-December to buy the remaining shares in the fixed-line operator at 490 rubles (about $17.13) per share. A second offer to buy common shares from minority shareholders, also at 490 rubles ($17.50) per share, was made in March this year.
Svyazinvest did not respond to the offers because government representatives on the company's board of directors were unable to decide on the issue without a government resolution. The Svyazinvest board of directors then decided to have its stake in the Moscow phone operator valued by an auditor.
This work was done by KPMG, which put the shares at 519 rubles, 5.9% higher than the price offered by Comstar UTS.
But the Federal Agency for the Management of Federal Property said KPMG's valuation was too low.
