Today, April 7, 2026, the Russian country-code top-level domain .RU marks its 32nd anniversary. On April 7, 1994, .RU was added to the IANA database – a date widely regarded as the birth of both Russia’s country-code domain and the Runet. Today, .RU is one of the largest top-level domains in the world, ranking fifth among country-code domains and ninth overall by the number of registered domain names.
A total of 6,119,675 domain names are registered in the .RU domain, of which 96.4% have been delegated – an exceptionally high figure that reflects the active use of the vast majority of .RU domain names. There are 4,788,101 domains with active services, accounting for 78.2% of the total. Of these, 30.2% host full-featured websites, 30.3% are used for web applications or single-page sites, 18.5% are used exclusively for email, 3.6% function as redirects, and 17.5% are parked.
Over the past year, 1,840,939 new domain names were registered in the .RU domain zone, averaging more than 153,000 registrations per month. This reflects steady demand from both individuals and businesses.
Individuals account for 77.9% of domain registrations, while companies and organizations make up the remaining 22.1%. In total, there are 2,096,684 domain registrants in the .RU zone. Of these, 75.8% manage a single domain, while 1.9% manage more than 10 domains.
Moscow and the Moscow Region account for the largest share of .RU domain name registrations with 36.7%, or 2,243,850 domains. The highest growth over the past year was recorded in the Voronezh Region (9,195 domains, up 11.2%), the Tomsk Region (7,863 domains, up 31.6%), and the Sverdlovsk Region (6,300 domains, up 4.4%).
“Over the past 32 years, the .RU domain has become iconic for countless individuals and companies across our country. It is, in many ways, an integral part of our national identity. Today, we are proud that the .RU domain, along with other Russian top-level domains, continues to grow, evolve and maintains this positive development momentum, making the Runet more accessible to every citizen. We thank everyone who contributes to strengthening the national domain space and creating a comfortable and secure online environment. Happy anniversary to .RU and the Russian internet segment – Runet,” Andrey Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, said.
