A new entry was made in the IANA database today, making the .РУС Cyrillic domain the sixth top-level Cyrillic domain created under the New gTLD program. The domain is administered by the Russian Names company.
According to the .РУС domain administrators, it is designed to bring together Russian-speaking Internet users. As is customary, the .РУС domain will be launched in several phases: Sunrise, Landrush, and open registration during which anyone can register a name in the .РУС domain. ДОМЕН.РУС became the first address in the new domain.
“Delegation of the .РУС domain is the result of nearly a decade of efforts to promote Russian domain names,” Alexei Sozonov, director of Russian Names, said. “We spearheaded this effort at a time when few even thought that addresses in Russian could become a reality. Now, Cyrillic domains are reaching a new level and becoming a tool of self-identification by language and culture. I am positive that .РУС will be widely popular with Russian-speaking Internet users.”
Director of the Coordination Center for TLD RU Andrei Kolesnikov congratulated his colleagues on the occasion: “Of the 12 delegated top-level Cyrillic domains, four are Russian. Over 300 million people speak Russian, and they are the potential audience of the .РУС domain. I’m confident that the new Cyrillic domain will help millions of Russian and Russian-speaking users around the world create a new space for interacting, realizing their ideas, and making new friends.”
Seven applications for top-level domains have been filed as part of the New gTLD program from Russia. So far, six domains have been delegated, including .ДЕТИ, .МОСКВА, .MOSCOW, .TATAR, .YANDEX and now .РУС. There are 12 Cyrillic domains globally, of which six are national IDN-domains, such as .ҚАЗ, .СРБ, .БЕЛ, .МОН, .УКР and .РФ.The .РФ domain, which became the first ever Cyrillic domain in 2010, now has over 850 million registered domain names, making it the largest IDN-domain in the world.
