Short lists of nominees for the Runet Awards 2012, national prize for the contribution to Russian Internet industry development, have been published. In the first voting round Runet Awards expert committee selected the candidates that are most likely to win in the six major and in four special nominations. Foundation for Assistance for Internet Technologies and Infrastructure Development (FAITID) was among them.

The Foundation was included in the short-list of ".РФ and not only" nomination for the project for .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА top-level domains’ implementation intended for the capital of Russia. In 2011 the project was entrusted to the Foundation and in April 2012 applications for .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА were submitted to ICANN. The first results of the applications’ evaluation will be announced in April 2013.

The significance of this project for the Russian Internet users is obvious. The addresses of the websites like COMPANY.MOSCOW and МУЗЕИ.МОСКВА stimulate the building of the capital’s online brand, creation of the unified information space of the city, attraction of the additional target audience to the websites for the residents of Moscow and about the Russian capital, development of the Internet technology in the city.

Moreover, the project for .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА domains’ introduction will become an effective tool of the territory branding. It will also help to implement the national White Internet Solution (the local test Intranet for children and teenagers on the basis of the Russian Cyrillic .МОСКВА domain).

650 applications were filed for Runet Awards. The expert committee has started to vote for the nominees in the short lists and after that it will select three winners in each category.

The awarding ceremony will be held November 21 in ARENA MOSCOW club. The ceremony will be broadcasted live on Russia 24 TV Channel.

Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC) is the Runet Awards organizer. The contest is financially supported by the Russian Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications. The Coordination Center for TLDs .RU and .РФ is the co-organizer of the event. Rostelecom is the Strategic partner of the contest.