Andrei Kolesnikov, the Coordination Center CEO, spoke as a domain industry expert at the PIR Center's workshop, “Internet governance after WCIT-2012: mapping key global trends and assessing Russia’s national interests”. The international seminar managed to address the vital issues of global internet governance, key trends and challenges in this field.
Participants of the international seminar included Mikhail Yakushev (PIR Center chairman of the board, member of the Coordination Center Council), George Gritsay (Ministry of Mass Communications of the RF), Oleg Demidov (PIR center), Mikhail Doroshevitch (e-Belarus.org), Madina Kasenova (MFA RF Diplomatic Academy), Dennis Keefe (British Embassy), Dmitry Kostrov (Ministry of Mass Communications of the RF), Veni Markovski (ICANN), Oxana Prikhodko (European Media Platform), Richard Hill (ITU), Valery Yaschenko (MSU) and others.
Andrei Kolesnikov noted that the political and technology progress should be viewed separately. The technology moves swiftly, with the law struggling to keep up with it. As the Coordination Center Ceo says, any kind of restrictions placed on the Internet by governments and security agencies further facilitates the technology advancements. "The situation around the global network serves as a catalyst for the technology progress", – Kolesnikov said.
The Coordination Center CEO also stresses the fact that the Coordination Center is a part of most global activities concerning Internet development and governance. "The Coordination Center for TLD RU/РФ is one of the most successful registries worldwide, and we take great pride in it," – says Kolesnikov. "But our activities are directly connected to changes that could transform the international Internet governance processes, so we find it very important to affect these processes and help articulate the Russian position at all levels".
The Coordination Center hosts a number of events that gather experts, business leaders and international regulators from worldwide. As an example, the annual Russian Internet Governance Forum, hosted by the Coordination Center, invites experts to discuss best practices in Internet governance and the multistakeholder approach. The forum is aimed at unifying professional opinions and creating discussions to reach consensus between governments, professional Internet community, businesses and society on Internet governance in Russia and worldwide, as well as to facilitate smooth operation of the global network. Many ideas first expressed at the RIGF were later adopted as best practices by Russian and international organizations.
The Russian Center for Policy Studies is an independent nongovernmental organization, which carries out research, as well as educational, public awareness and publishing activities, and provides consulting services. From the time of its founding in April 1994 to this day, the priority areas of the Center's research studies remain international security, control and nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction. PIR Center is in consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
