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ICANN: "The workings of the Internet are not politicized"

The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ receives many requests from both journalists and domain name administrators on what is happening with Russian ccTLDs and how their performance may be affected by the current situation. We inform you that the Russian domains .RU and .РФ work stably. We ensure safe, uninterrupted and reliable operation of the entire national domain infrastructure, monitor the situation and, if necessary, take immediate actions together with our partners.

International organizations that are responsible for the operability of the global and regional Internet infrastructure and the stable operation of the DNS, confirm that their main task is to ensure the security, stability and unity of the global sustainable Internet. That’s why no unilateral measures should be taken with regard to the Russian domains .RU and .РФ and any other TLDs that would restrict their operation.

In particular, the official ICANN website published the response of the president of the corporation, Göran Marby, to the proposal of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Mikhail Fedorov, to revoke specific ccTLDs operated from within Russia. “In our role as the technical coordinator of unique identifiers for the Internet, we take actions to ensure that the workings of the Internet are not politicized, and we have no sanction-levying authority. Essentially, ICANN has been built to ensure that the Internet works, not for its coordination role to be used to stop it from working,” – noted Mr. Marby. 

“Within our mission, we maintain neutrality and act in support of the global Internet. Our mission does not extend to taking punitive actions, issuing sanctions, or restricting access against segments of the Internet – regardless of the provocations. ICANN applies its policies consistently and in alignment with documented processes. To make unilateral changes would erode trust in the multistakeholder model and the policies designed to sustain global Internet interoperability,” – stressed Mr. Marby.

The Council of Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) also stated that the ccNSO remains open and trusted partner for all ccTLD registries. "We, as the ccTLDs community, represent the most diverse community in ICANN, and we have always welcomed all participants to ccNSO discussions as equals, regardless of cultural or political differences," – the ccNSO notes.

The RIPE NCC website has published the RIPE NCC Executive Board Resolution on Provision of Critical Services. As it was noted in the document, the RIPE NCC provides critical services to its membership spread across a diverse geographical and political region. The Executive Board of the RIPE NCC believes that the means to communicate should not be affected by domestic political disputes, international conflicts or war. This includes the provision of correctly registered Internet numbering resources.

In this regard, the Executive Board of the RIPE NCC is committed to taking all available lawful steps to ensure that the RIPE NCC can provide undisrupted services to all members across our service region and the global Internet community. “It is crucial that the RIPE NCC remains neutral and does not take positions with regard to domestic political disputes, international conflicts or war. This guarantees equal treatment for all those responsible for providing Internet services. This is a fundamental reason why the RIPE NCC has been able to maintain its operations in the way it has for the past three decades. It also means that the information and data provided by the RIPE NCC can be trusted as authoritative and free from bias or political influence. Failure to adhere to this approach would jeopardise the very model that has been key to the development of the Internet in our service region,” – stated the document.

At the same time, some Russian users have problems with the support of domain names in foreign domain zones, if this support is provided by foreign registrar companies or hosters. This happened, for example, with the clients of the Namecheap registrar, which announced the termination of the provision of services for users from Russia. We are talking about the termination of service for Russian users, as well as the provision of hosting services and email support for domains in the .RU, .РФ, .SU и .БЕЛ zones. Namecheap asked to transfer existing domains to other registrars until March 6, after which all services will be suspended. In addition, many users have already faced a difficult paying for the services of foreign companies using Russian bank cards.

Therefore, the Coordination Center recommends domain administrators in the .RU or .РФ zones who use foreign hosting and e-mail services to transfer support for domains in the .RU and .РФ zones and websites addressed by them to the DNS servers of registrars and hosters registered in the territory under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. The same applies to domain names in other domain zones.

The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ expresses confidence that the functioning of Russian national domains will not be disrupted. The Center continues its work to protect domain name administrators and to ensure the smooth operation of their projects on domains registered in .RU and .РФ.

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