Overview
- .рус is a Cyrillic internationalized gTLD (IDN) intended for Russian-language and Russian-culture communities.
- The string ties linguistically to the historical Rus and the Cyrillic script rather than specifically to the country name "Russia".
History
- Application submitted to ICANN as part of the New gTLD Program (April 2012).
- Registry Agreement signed with ICANN (12 December 2013).
- Delegated to the DNS Root Zone on 27 September 2014.
- Priority (Sunrise) and phased launch timetable occurred in 2015–2016; open registration began on 24 May 2016.
- Reported registration count in an infobox source: 82,804 registered domains (data registered date: 19 August 2024).
- Some sources report that registrations/transfers were halted due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine (described in the source as "obscure sources").
Usage and Audience
- Intended audience: Russian-speaking users and communities that share Russian culture and Cyrillic-language content.
- The community is described as global and includes people in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and diaspora communities worldwide.
- Operator / applicant: Rusnames (also referenced as "Russian Names" in some sources).
- Registry technology/partner referenced: CoCCA (per ICANNWiki entry).
Registration Rules
- Allowed characters: Cyrillic (Russian alphabet), numbers, and the hyphen.
- Registration policy: treated as a gTLD open to applicants complying with Rusnames' Acceptable Use Policy and ICANN guidelines, but Rusnames indicated requirements that sites have:
- The majority of their content in the Russian Cyrillic language; and
- Content that respects Russian Cyrillic language, culture, and history.
- Launch phases and notable dates:
- Sunrise periods (multiple priority phases for trademark holders, company names, media, geographic names, public authorities) spanning September 3, 2015 – January 15, 2016.
- Premium (Landrush) registration phases in early 2016 with Dutch-auction pricing and limited premium registration for .RU domain owners.
- Open registration on a first-come, first-served basis began 24 May 2016 (over 11,000 registrations in the first month, per the source).
SEO and Brand Impact
- Brand positioning: .рус is framed as a community and culture-focused TLD to promote and protect Russian Cyrillic language, culture, and heritage; registration and content expectations reflect this community focus.
- Public Interest Commitments (PIC): Rusnames committed to best-effort measures to prevent criminal activity, hatred, violence or terrorism on .рус sites, and to verify WHOIS data on a best-effort basis (with a caveat that commitments could be revisited for affordability).
Notable Cases or Examples
- Registry operator/applicant: Rusnames Limited (also referenced as "Russian Names").
- Registry Agreement with ICANN executed 12 December 2013; delegation to root zone on 27 September 2014.
- ICANN classified the string as part of its low-risk assessment during the application process and selected .рус for preliminary testing (one of a small set of applications chosen).
- Blocklist publication: In November 2014 ICANN published a block list for .рус containing 152 second-level labels (as noted in the source).
- Early adoption: over 11,000 domain registrations in the first month of open registration (May–June 2016).
Operator
Rusnames Limited
Whois
% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object
domain: рус
domain-ace: XN--P1ACF
organisation: Rusnames Limited
address: 17 Moskowskoye shosse str, office 2103
address: Samara 443013
address: Russian Federation (the)
contact: administrative
name: ALEXEI SOZONOV
organisation: RUSNAMES LIMITED
address: 17 Moskowskoye shosse str, office 2103
address: Samara 443013
address: Russian Federation (the)
phone: +79649772117
fax-no: +7(846)3799039
e-mail: alexeisozonov@rusnames.ru
contact: technical
name: Sergey Zotov
organisation: RUSNAMES LIMITED
address: 17 Moskowskoye shosse str, office 2103
address: Samara 443013
address: Russian Federation (the)
phone: +79023207767
e-mail: iana.tech@rusnames.ru
nserver: NS1.ANYCASTDNS.CZ 185.38.108.108 2a00:fea0:dead:0:0:0:0:beef
nserver: NS1.NIC.XN--P1ACF 2620:171:d01:dc:0:0:0:2 72.42.113.2
nserver: NS2.ANYCASTDNS.CZ 185.28.194.194
nserver: NS2.NIC.XN--P1ACF 2620:171:a01:ad:0:0:0:2 72.0.49.2
ds-rdata: 11446 8 2 c39b9fb91b155ca7ff3f84bc7f7b7713e8d3b40ae9b7b0d9c3de0fdc36fa325c
whois: whois.nic.xn--p1acf
status: ACTIVE
remarks: Registration information: http://rusnames.ru/
created: 2014-07-03
changed: 2022-11-21
source: IANA
Registrars