Russia will launch a new top level domain in Cyrillic characters - .рф (.RF). It has been designed for Russian Internet users as they use Cyrillic characters. Until now they have had to settle for the Latin .ru. .рф (.RF) domains are expected to be the locally preferred domain and will therefore be very interesting for companies doing business in Russia. Both to protect and promote local brand names as domains, but also to obtain the keyword rich domain names defining your business

The Coordination Center for TLD RU will be launching a Priority Registration process on 25 November 2009 for .рф (.RF) domains. Priority applications will be based on Russian trademark holders (or international trademarks valid in Russia). This priority period is expected to run from 25 November 2009 until 25 March 2010. Actual registrations of .рф (.RF) domain names are proposed to become active one month after the approval of the TLD (Q2 2010).

.РФ domains only allow for Cyrillic chracters. It is not possible to mix with Latin characters.The registered trademark (verbal, illustrative, combined or otherwise) subjected to registration shall fully match the verbal symbols of the trademark upon deletion or replacement of spaces with «-» symbol (hyphen). The verbal symbols of the trademark shall contain thereby at least one protected item.

Registrants will be required to supply a Certificate of the registered trademark with approval that it became effective in the Russian Federation, along with a Certificate of the registered legal entity for the owner of the trademark, or any documents that approve registration of the legal entity according to the laws of the country, where legal entity is registered.

It is important to note that should multiple submissions be received for the same domain name, priority will be given to the first application received. We will create a queue for .рф from the Nov 25.

Here are the launch dates:

• November 25, 2009 - March 25, 2010 - Sunrise registration stage in . РФ for governmental agencies and trademark holders;
• April 20 - June 15, 2010 - domains auction for РФ TLD
• Effective July 2010 - Landrush registration period of .РФ domains at standard prices.