Rosniyro, the Russian Development of Public Networks Research Institute, reported that it had not received notice about the exclusion of a water area from the DNS root region. The absence of formal notification highlights how DNS root changes must flow through official channels to align national policy with international coordination. In Canada and the United States, where many networks depend on stable root-zone governance, such notices matter for operators, registries, and service providers as they plan routing, security, and compliance strategies.
Within Rosniyroz, representatives stressed that a national registry initiative dated July 29, 2019 had been incorporated into the broader infrastructure plan. According to the ICANN procedure established in 2022, a senior national top-level domain (CCTLD) is identified in ISO 3166 status when the two-letter code aligns with the official ISO standard. The implications of this alignment affect how country codes are interpreted on the global stage, including for North American registries that rely on predictable mappings between country codes and domain spaces.
On the morning of March 13, ICANN publicly announced a phased approach on its website regarding the transitional use of legacy infrastructure associated with the former Soviet Union through 2030. The plan signals a staged adjustment to domain operations and policy posture to accommodate evolving governance, security, and technical requirements. Today, roughly 100,000 domain names are registered in the .ru space, with many still open to new registrations. This data point illustrates how shifts in root-zone policy and regional governance can influence market dynamics for registrants and brokers across North America, including Canadian and American enterprises and end users who rely on stable domain resolution and brand protection.
In the early days of activity around this topic, the Russian Communist Party and other political groups made statements referencing the USSR. While such references belong to historical and political discourse, they intersect with the broader conversation about national digital policy, cyberspace sovereignty, and how archival considerations shape contemporary domain governance. The interplay between political rhetoric and technical policy is part of a larger narrative that Canadian and American stakeholders monitor as they assess cross-border implications for registrars, hosting providers, and enterprises with multinational footprints. (ICANN press release, 2022) (Russian political statements, 2021)