Russia cuts off ICANN funding after pro-Ukraine stance (2.Viewing)

Russia did not pay its usual annual tribute to ICANN in the Org’s fiscal 2023, newly published funding data reveals.

Coordination Center for TLD RU usually funnels $50,000 a year into ICANN’s budget, but that was reduced to nothing in the year to June 30, 2023, according to ICANN’s FY23 annual report, published today.

While it could of course be a coincidence, I rather suspect it’s retaliation for ICANN’s overt support for Ukraine following Russia’s invasion last year.

ccTLD.ru counts the Russian Ministry of Communications and Mass Media as one of its “founding members”.

Read more: Russia cuts off ICANN funding after pro-Ukraine stance - Domain Incite

I'm surprised they are even allowing russia to continue using .ru

The Russian government has called on ICANN to further distance itself from US legal jurisdiction, complaining that the current war-related sanctions could prevent its companies from applying for new gTLDs.
In recent comments, Russia said that “no single state or group of states should have the right to interfere in the operation of critical Internet infrastructure and/or the activities of ICANN, including the mechanisms for legal regulation of ICANN’s operations”.


Read more: Russia calls for ICANN to split from US - Domain Incite

First they don't pay, then they complain

If you noticed ICANN’s web site acting sluggishly or failing to respond at all last week, now you know why.

The site at icann.org was hit by a distributed denial of service attack on September 3 through September 4, according to a brief statement on the Org’s now-functional site.

Read more: ICANN hit by DDoS attack - Domain Incite


Russia is serious, they are going to war with ICANN