<s>
The	O
domain	O
name	O
.рф	O
(	O
romanized	O
as	O
.rf	B-General_Concept
;	O
abbreviation	O
of	O
)	O
is	O
the	O
Cyrillic	B-General_Concept
country	I-General_Concept
code	I-General_Concept
top-level	I-General_Concept
domain	I-General_Concept
for	O
the	O
Russian	O
Federation	O
,	O
in	O
the	O
Domain	B-Protocol
Name	I-Protocol
System	I-Protocol
of	O
the	O
Internet	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
the	O
Domain	B-Protocol
Name	I-Protocol
System	I-Protocol
it	O
has	O
the	O
ASCII	B-Protocol
DNS	B-Protocol
name	I-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
domain	O
accepts	O
only	O
Cyrillic	O
subdomain	O
applications	O
,	O
and	O
is	O
the	O
first	O
Cyrillic	O
implementation	O
of	O
the	O
Internationalizing	B-Language
Domain	I-Language
Names	I-Language
in	I-Language
Applications	I-Language
(	O
IDNA	B-Language
)	O
system	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
domain	O
became	O
operational	O
on	O
13	O
May	O
2010	O
.	O
it	O
is	O
the	O
most	O
used	O
internationalized	B-General_Concept
country	I-General_Concept
code	I-General_Concept
top-level	I-General_Concept
domain	I-General_Concept
,	O
with	O
around	O
900,000	O
domain	O
names	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
domain	O
has	O
an	O
ASCII	B-Language
representation	I-Language
of	O
xn--p1ai	O
derived	O
as	O
Punycode	B-General_Concept
for	O
use	O
in	O
the	O
Domain	B-Protocol
Name	I-Protocol
System	I-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
principle	O
in	O
the	O
approval	O
process	O
of	O
ICANN	B-Application
Generic	O
Names	O
Supporting	O
Organization	O
(	O
GNSO	O
)	O
states	O
that	O
Cyrillic	O
two-character	O
top-level	O
domains	O
should	O
not	O
exclusively	O
use	O
characters	O
that	O
could	O
be	O
confused	O
with	O
Latin	O
characters	O
of	O
identical	O
or	O
similar	O
shapes	O
—	O
not	O
just	O
those	O
containing	O
the	O
seven	O
letters	O
а	O
,	O
е	O
,	O
о	O
,	O
р	O
,	O
с	O
,	O
у	O
and	O
х	O
,	O
but	O
originally	O
also	O
proposed	O
ccTLDs	B-Application
such	O
as	O
.бг	B-Language
(	O
Bulgaria	O
)	O
due	O
to	O
its	O
visual	O
similarity	O
to	O
.br	O
,	O
although	O
in	O
2016	O
the	O
top-level	O
domain	O
.бг	B-Language
was	O
launched	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
As	O
such	O
,	O
GNSO	O
sought	O
to	O
avoid	O
the	O
direct	O
transcription	O
of	O
"	O
ru	O
"	O
into	O
Cyrillic	O
,	O
"	O
ру	O
"	O
,	O
and	O
common	O
abbreviations	O
for	O
Russia	O
(	O
)	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
"	O
ро	O
"	O
,	O
in	O
order	O
to	O
avoid	O
confusion	O
with	O
the	O
Latin	O
ccTLDs	B-Application
.py	B-Language
(	O
Paraguay	O
)	O
and	O
.po	O
(	O
unassigned	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
English	O
sources	O
.рф	O
can	O
be	O
romanized	O
as	O
.rf	B-General_Concept
,	O
but	O
the	O
latter	O
is	O
not	O
a	O
valid	O
domain	O
for	O
Russia	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Later	O
,	O
other	O
countries	O
have	O
won	O
approval	O
of	O
two	O
or	O
three	O
letter	O
Cyrillic	O
ccTLDs	B-Application
such	O
as	O
.укр	O
,	O
.срб	B-General_Concept
,	O
.мон	O
,	O
.қаз	O
,	O
.бел	O
,	O
.мкд	O
and	O
.бг	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
domain	O
delegation	O
process	O
started	O
in	O
November	O
2009	O
as	O
an	O
application	O
to	O
ICANN	B-Application
under	O
the	O
new	O
Fast	O
Track	O
IDN	B-General_Concept
ccTLD	I-General_Concept
process	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
January	O
2010	O
ICANN	B-Application
announced	O
that	O
the	O
domain	O
was	O
one	O
of	O
the	O
first	O
four	O
new	O
non-Latin	O
ccTLDs	B-Application
to	O
have	O
passed	O
the	O
Fast	O
Track	O
String	O
Evaluation	O
within	O
the	O
domain	O
application	O
process	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
a	O
press	O
release	O
in	O
December	O
2007	O
,	O
Alexei	O
Lesnikov	O
of	O
RU-Center	O
suggested	O
that	O
an	O
auction	O
for	O
domain	O
names	O
could	O
be	O
highly	O
successful	O
,	O
as	O
was	O
the	O
case	O
with	O
a	O
similar	O
domain	O
name	O
auction	O
on	O
the	O
.su	O
ccTLD	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
With	O
comparisons	O
being	O
made	O
with	O
an	O
equivalent	O
Chinese	O
TLD	O
of	O
.中国	O
,	O
it	O
was	O
anticipated	O
that	O
take-up	O
of	O
a	O
Russian	O
Cyrillic	O
TLD	O
could	O
outstrip	O
demand	O
for	O
the	O
Latin	O
alphabet	O
equivalent	O
,	O
.ru	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
however	O
,	O
.ru	B-General_Concept
has	O
five	O
times	O
as	O
many	O
registrations	O
as	O
.рф	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
traditional	O
country	B-Application
code	I-Application
top-level	I-Application
domain	I-Application
(	O
ccTLD	B-Application
)	O
for	O
Russia	O
,	O
based	O
on	O
the	O
ISO	O
country	O
codes	O
,	O
is	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
However	O
,	O
many	O
resources	O
may	O
use	O
URL	O
redirection	O
or	O
DNS	B-Protocol
pointers	O
to	O
provide	O
mapping	O
between	O
the	O
name	O
spaces	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
second-level	B-Protocol
domain	I-Protocol
names	I-Protocol
are	O
registered	O
directly	O
with	O
user-defined	O
names	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
company	O
names	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
second-level	B-Protocol
domain	I-Protocol
names	I-Protocol
are	O
only	O
intended	O
to	O
have	O
Cyrillic	O
characters	O
,	O
but	O
some	O
have	O
Latin	O
characters	O
(	O
e.g.	O
,	O
сгау.рф	O
)	O
,	O
or	O
digits	O
instead	O
(	O
e.g.	O
,	O
555509.рф	O
)	O
For	O
the	O
third-level	O
names	O
,	O
it	O
is	O
fairly	O
common	O
that	O
"	O
www	O
"	O
(	O
Latin	O
characters	O
)	O
are	O
used	O
,	O
but	O
most	O
main	O
company	O
addresses	O
do	O
not	O
use	O
any	O
third-level	O
name	O
.	O
</s>
