On December 3, 2015, the Council of the Coordination Center for Top Level Domains (CC TLD.Ru/.РФ) held a regular meeting. Council members were acquainted with the CC’s new charter, as well as its new founders. The CC now has six founders: the Association of Documentary Telecommunications, Regional Public Internet Technology Center, Union of Internet Operators, Russian Research Institute of Social Media, Ministry of Communications and Mass Media and Institute for the Development of the Internet (IDI). The new charter was approved by a general meeting of CC founders on November 19, 2015. . Its state registration is pending.
The idea of expanding the scope of the CC founders was brought up long ago. In September, its founders (Association of Documentary Telecommunications, Regional Public Internet Technology Center, Union of Internet Operators and Russian Research Institute of Social Media) sent an invitation to the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media to join the CC. Minister Nikolai Nikiforov accepted the proposal and now the government will play a more active role in making strategic decisions related to the development of Russian national domains.
“The regulator’s representative was a member of the CC Council and had veto power on any of the council’s decisions. I should note that the veto power has never been used in the CC’s entire history, which shows that there was mutual understanding between the state and the CC. So I’m sure that there’ll be no question about downgrading the role of public institutions in the administration of the national segment of the Internet. On the contrary, this role will be preserved and even strengthened as a result of the expansion of the founders’ powers in running the CC. In addition, in my opinion, the participation of the Internet Development Institute, an organization involving over 1,000 Runet experts representing different viewpoints, will ensure compliance with public interests regarding Russia’s domain space. This makeup of CC founders will help maintain a balance among all interested parties and work for the good of all society,” CC Director Andrey Vorobyev said.
The new edition of the Charter requires amendments to the Regulations on the CC Council and Procedure for its Formation. The council entrusted the CC director with forming a working group to finalize these documents. The meeting also considered a draft budget for 2016. The final version of the CC’s main financial document will be submitted for the council’s approval at the next meeting.
The council also decided to amend the rules of domain name registration in the .RU and .РФ domains and approve the procedure to be followed in exchanging domain name data among registrars. These amendments will provide domain name administrators more comfortable and safe working conditions and the transfer of domain information between registrars will be even better protected. This will strengthen the competitive advantages of second-level domain names in the .RU and .РФ national domains, which will improve the competitive environment on the Russian domain market. Registrars will be notified about the date of the enactment of these documents no later than 30 days before their entry into force.
