Russia says .aero domains were unfairly suspended

Two planes from Aeroflot, Russia’s flag carrier. Russia says that the .aero registry has wrongly suspended registrations and renewals of .aero domains for organizations in the Russian Federation. Photo credit: Dmitry Zherdin, CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL 1.2, via Wikimedia Commons.

Russia is asking ICANN to intervene after it says the .aero registry unfairly suspended domain registration for organizations in the Russian Federation.

.Aero is a sponsored top level domain operated by SITA Information Networking Computing USA, Inc.

Andrea Zhinov, Russia’s GAC representative to ICANN, wrote to ICANN on behalf of the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation. He said that SITA stopped taking orders for registrations and renewals of .aero domains from clients in Russia on November 10, 2023.

According to the letter (pdf), SITA cited sanctions requirements for suspending services to Russian customers. But Zhinov claims that, “Services for registration and renewal of domain names are specifically and separately exempted from sanctions by General License No. 25C3, para (b) of the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions list, therefore, the risk of sanctions mentioned in the information letter is completely unfounded and solely malicious.”

ICANN responded to the letter yesterday, three months after Zhinov sent the letter. ICANN’s response stated, “If you believe the registry operator has failed to comply with any of the obligations set forth by the .aero Top-Level Domain (TLD) Sponsorship Agreement, you may consider submitting a complaint to Contractual Compliance. ”

The names of more than 400 Russian organizations, including more than 30 airports and 15 airlines, are registered in .aero.

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