On September 15, the 18th International Conference for ccTLD Registries and Registrars of CIS, Central and Eastern Europe (TLDCON 2025) opened in Kaliningrad. The two-day event has brought together more than 160 participants: representatives of top-level domain registries, domain industry specialists, cybersecurity experts, and lawyers from Russia, the CIS, and beyond. The program features six thematic sections with over 40 speakers, along with two special lectures by renowned experts in the domain and IT industries.
The conference was opened by Andrey Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ. He noted that TLDCON 2025 coincided with two milestones: the 15th anniversary of the .РФ domain and the 35th anniversary of the .SU domain, which is Russia’s oldest.
“2025 has been a successful year for the .РФ domain. Today, it has 775,000 registered domain names and remains the world’s largest national IDN,” the CCTLD director stressed.
Andrey Vorobyev also spoke about the educational track, which has become a regular feature of the conference:
“This year marks the third time we have complemented TLDCON with educational and awareness initiatives. All 158 schools in Kaliningrad and the region are taking part in Safer Internet Week, which includes over 30 events - meetings, lectures, roundtable discussions, quizzes, and competitions. Teachers will also have the opportunity to undergo special training at our School of Mentors,” he said.
Domain industry regulation is one of the central topics of TLDCON 2025. Anton Gorelkin, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Cyberpolicy, IT and Communications, and ROCIT Chairman, announced that a new bill is being prepared for submission to the State Duma. The draft law aims to combat phishing websites by introducing mandatory verification of domain name administrators in the .RU and .РФ zones through the Unified Identification and Authentication System.
“TLDCON remains a platform for effective dialogue between professionals from different countries. I am confident that common principles of regulation, established approaches to security, and compliance with national legislation will continue to be upheld. However, we have much to learn from one another, and Russia is ready to share its best practices,” Gorelkin underlined.
The TLDCON 2025 is hosted by a Kaliningrad registrar, Ardis. Its CEO, Ilya Krukover, noted that the company became the first accredited registrar to use a Cyrillic domain as its main corporate website – ардис.рф.
Yevgeny Kuskevich, Director of Development of the .SU domain at RosNIIROS, emphasized the institute’s longstanding role in supporting professional community meetings. He also said that, starting this year, work on preserving the languages of the peoples of Russia has gained state support, while the .SU zone has always paid great attention to this.
“Starting this year, this work has state support. The .SU zone has always paid great attention to the preservation of languages. Soon, it will be possible to register .SU domains in simplified Chinese, Thai, Hangul (Korean), and Devanagari (Hindi),” Kuskevich said.
The guest of honor at TLDCON 2025 is Alexei Platonov, Director of MSK-IX, long-time head of RosNIIROS and the Technical Center of Internet, and widely recognized as the “father” of the .SU domain. He shared the history of the .SU zone and the pioneering role of RosNIIROS in Runet development.
Maria Kolesnikova, Chief Analyst of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, outlined the development prospects for the .РФ domain. In its anniversary year, 25 new symbols from 17 official languages of the peoples of Russia were introduced. More than 1,500 domain names have already been registered using these characters, with ө, ү, and ҡ proving the most popular. This effort will continue, gradually expanding the linguistic diversity of the .РФ domain.
The conference continues its work. Sessions of TLDCON 2025 are available for live viewing on the conference website, Rutube, and VK.
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