.рус

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).

% 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