A key topic of discussion at ICANN 82 in Seattle was the progress made toward Universal Acceptance (UA) for domain names and email addresses. The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ has been actively working on this issue for many years, with Maria Kolesnikova, chief analyst at the center, participating in ICANN 82 sessions dedicated to UA.
On March 9, the ccNSO Universal Acceptance Committee (UAC) hosted a public meeting to explore factors that support the involvement of country code top-level domain registries in advancing UA. Participants agreed to continue the conversation at the next ICANN 83 meeting, focusing on the challenges that hinder the achievement of Universal Acceptance for country code domains.
On March 10, Maria Kolesnikova, chair of the local initiative for Universal Acceptance in the CIS and Eastern Europe, addressed a closed meeting of the Global Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG) with the ICANN Board, where she spoke about the local initiative’s efforts. With this year marking the 10th anniversary of the UASG’s establishment, the meeting reviewed the organization’s activities over the past decade, including the work of its various working groups, local initiatives, and UA ambassadors.
Maria Kolesnikova also spoke at a ccNSO session, Exploring Drivers for UA Readiness, where she presented the case of the Russian Cyrillic domain .РФ as the world’s most successful national IDN domain, highlighting the ways .РФ supports the Russian-speaking internet community.
She noted that over 760,000 domain names are currently registered under .РФ, with an average of 200,000 new registrations each year. Approximately 70 percent of domain names in .РФ are renewed annually, 95 percent are delegated, and more than 70 percent are actively used for unique websites and email services. Interestingly, most registered second-level names in .РФ are between 10 and 20 characters long.
“When discussing Universal Acceptance and what has driven the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ to work on this for five years, it’s important to remember that the internet penetration rate in our country is 93 percent, with Russians spending an average of 6–7 hours online daily. Nearly all user interfaces, online services, and content are available in Russian, meaning users rarely need to switch to English, except when it comes to domain names and email addresses. The .РФ domain was created to change this,” Maria Kolesnikova emphasized.
She outlined the steps the Coordination Center is taking to ensure that Cyrillic domains and email addresses are seamlessly supported in software, allowing users to navigate the internet without needing to switch their keyboard to another language or encounter error messages when using Cyrillic domains or email addresses. Key initiatives include the use of second-level domains in .РФ and Cyrillic email for the Coordination Center’s own projects, integrating support for Cyrillic email on corporate websites and within the Coordination Center’s ticketing system, and launching Поддерживаю.РФ – a dedicated project providing consultations and training for the local technical community on IDNA and EAI standards. Additionally, the Coordination Center conducts annual studies to assess IDN and EAI support at the local level. Looking ahead, the Coordination Center plans to expand the set of supported Cyrillic characters in the .РФ domain and enable the use of Cyrillic email addresses as contact information within the domain registry.
“Although the .РФ domain is widely used within the Russian-speaking internet community, we believe that Cyrillic internet identifiers remain underutilized for online promotion. That’s why we continue to highlight their marketing advantages. At the same time, we view Universal Acceptance as a crucial part of global efforts to enhance digital inclusion and develop the internet as a truly multilingual space. Today, the internet already reflects linguistic diversity among its users, but unfortunately, this is not yet the case for its services and content. We make active efforts to address this challenge by supporting local developers in creating products that are fully compatible with all existing domain names and email addresses,” Maria Kolesnikova concluded.
