On May 12, 2016, the Coordination Center for TLD RU organized a special section at the Big Media Communication Forum to mark the 6th anniversary of .РФ, the first Russian Cyrillic domain. The section brought together internet users, domain name administrators, accredited registrars, leaders of internet companies and all those who are interested in the domain, need it for business or as a vocation, or are involved in its growth and development. Runet’s most famous personalities, who took part in the domain’s launch, addressed the section participants, as did ICANN's Vice President Mikhail Yakushev, and Patrick Jones, Senior Director for Global Stakeholder Engagement.
Mikhail Yakushev noted the important role that the .РФ domain has played for registrars of new top-level domains and national IDN-domains: “.РФ became an inspiration for other registrars: and now, not just national Cyrillic top-level domains have appeared, but common Cyrillic top-level domains as well, which is our big win. The .РФ domain is our testament to the Russian internet being at the fore of technological progress.”
Alexei Platonov, General Director of the Technical Center of Internet, spoke about the technical support of .РФ and the hard work behind it: “If we’re invisible it means everything works. The Technical Center of Internet showcases high reliability and stability, and this is thanks first of all to our staff, many of whom have been there since the early 90’s, being the ones who actually developed internet in Russia. .РФ is in the hands of professionals, and this ensures successful development down the road!”
Chair of the Executive Committee at the Russian Association of Networks and Services Arkady Kremer also offered congratulations, stressing the fact that .РФ is a product of the cooperation of many people and called for unity and the further development of Russia’s national Cyrillic domain. Former director of the Coordination Center Andrei Kolesnikov, who was directly responsible for the launch of the domain, recalled its early stages: “Our officials were hostile to the very word ICANN up until 2010. The fact that the idea of a Cyrillic domain was supported by then President Dmitry Medvedev helped a lot.”
Patrick Jones had warm words for .РФ: “Your registrar has done a huge job and prepared conditions for the creation of new domain zones. .РФ is one of the best examples of non-standard domains that I’ve been talking about. Twenty years ago, there were 40,000 domain names on the Internet, and now there are over 300 million. And millions of people, who don’t speak English, can express themselves using their native language partly by registering a domain name they can understand.”
General Director of MSK-IX Yelena Voronina, Deputy Director of the Smart Internet Foundation (.ДЕТИ domain) Irina Danelia and Deputy Director of the Coordination Center Andrei Romanov joined the others in giving their congratulations.
Andrey Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center, noted in conclusion that there is still a lot to do going forward: “We will be working on registering the millionth domain name in .рф as soon as possible.” He also thanked the attendees and congratulated them on the domain's 6th anniversary.
