On September 24, a signing ceremony was held at the Russian Internet Forum (RIF 2025) for the Memorandum on Expanding Support for Internet Addressing Tools Using the State Language of the Russian Federation. The agreement was signed by the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, which will act as the lead organization, alongside four other groups: MSK-IX, ParaType, House of the Peoples of Russia, and RUwiki.
The cooperation outlined in the memorandum aims to foster growth of the Russian-language segment of the internet and to promote universal acceptance of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and Email Address Internationalization (EAI) for the official languages of Russia’s constituent republics.
“The digital environment is crucial for preserving the Russian language and the other languages of Russia; it is part of the digital identity of millions,” said Andrey Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center for .RU/.РФ. “Supporting Cyrillic-based internet addressing allows every Russian to use the internet to its full potential and is a key step toward digital sovereignty. With leading industry players now joining this memorandum, we will collaborate to make the Russian-language digital space more comfortable and technologically advanced.”
Commenting on the event, Yevgeny Morozov, CEO of MSK-IX, stated:
“The development of a multilingual internet is not just a technological task, but a strategic objective that directly impacts the accessibility of digital services for every citizen. As a key company that helps underpin the infrastructure of the Runet, MSK-IX considers it our duty to contribute actively to this process. We are confident that the adoption of Cyrillic addresses at the software and network protocol level will help expand the availability of national content and strengthen Russia’s digital sovereignty. Our work under the memorandum will focus on ensuring the stability and security of this multilingual address space.”
“For RUwiki, joining the memorandum is a logical step,” said Yelena Litovchenko, Deputy CEO of RUwiki. “Our encyclopedia is developed in 21 of Russia’s regional languages, and we believe the internet of the future must be truly multilingual and accessible to all. This is not just a technological issue, but a matter of cultural identity and preserving our linguistic heritage in the digital world. We are pleased to contribute to this important initiative.”
“In today’s era of rapid digital transition, the House of the Peoples of Russia is committed to supporting every language spoken in the country,” said Feride Aronia, Head of Support and Implementation of Language Projects at the House of the Peoples of Russia. “That is why we are delighted to join this important initiative by the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, which promotes native-language internet access for all of Russia’s languages, including the state language, within the information space.”
ParaType Director Anna Yakupova emphasized that a multilingual internet is impossible without fonts that reflect the richness of the world’s writing systems.
“For a language to function fully online, it is essential that all of its characters display correctly,” she said. “ParaType fonts support 153 of Russia’s native languages, enabling the use of all their respective scripts in the digital environment.”
The Memorandum formalizes the parties’ commitment to developing internet addressing in the state language of Russia. This includes supporting Cyrillic domain names and email addresses, as well as enabling the use of scripts from the country’s regional languages, with the goal of creating a more accessible and secure digital environment for Russian users. To date, the memorandum has been joined by 22 participants, including Russian registries, registrars, IT companies, universities, and public organizations.
