On February 18, the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry hosted a meeting of the Internet Governance Committee of the Coordination Center for TLD RU. The event was held along with the roundtable discussion “Internet Governance: 2015 Results and Prospects,” which is sponsored by the academy and the Communications and IT Working Group of the Russian Government Expert Council. The committee and guest experts discussed events of 2015 that were of key worldwide significance for Internet governance.
An important topic concerned cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the preparation of Russia’s coordinated position on Internet governance. All the speakers stressed that the ministry is a leading representative body of Russia, and deeper cooperation with the expert community is needed. Andrei Romanov, Deputy Director of the Coordination Center and Chair of the Internet Governance Committee, said that a possible difference in approaches should not be overlooked: “The Foreign Ministry has a particular job in that it is guided by, first and foremost, interests of national security, which impacts what it chooses to highlight in its messages”, he said.
Speakers also recounted key events of 2015. Mikhail Yakushev, a member of the Internet Governance Committee and ICANN Vice President for Stakeholder Engagement in Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia, said that 2015 was in many ways a reporting year since a global Internet governance forum had been established 10 years ago in Tunis. He spoke of the event’s history and the evolution of approaches to Internet governance. He also said that even though Russia's proposals do not often end up included in final documents, there are no major, insurmountable differences in the positions of Russia, the US and the EU.
Mikhail Medrish, Director at the Internet Support Foundation, talked about the 2nd World Internet Conference, which took place in December 2015 in the Chinese city of Wuzhen. Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke at the conference to outline his country’s key Internet principles which included: the need to give all countries equal rights in the discussion on Internet governance; combating cybercrime; and support for cooperation and Internet stability. In conclusion, the participants suggested that such meetings should be held on a regular basis with the involvement of the Internet Governance Committee, and that lawmakers and relevant executive officials should also be invited.
