20 March 2013 during the 8th Training Conference of the Intellectual Property series the Foun dation for Assistance for Internet Technologies and Infrastructure Development announced the public comment period for the draft Concept of Second-Level Domain Name Registration in the .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА TLDs.

 The document is published on the Foundation’s website. The comments are being accepted till 30 April 2013. The intermediate outcomes of the public comment period will be summarized at the RIF+CIB 201 3 Conference.

The Concept of Second-Level Domain Name Registration in the .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА TLDs describes the basic operation principles of the top-level domains and their launch roadmap.

In conformance with the Concept before the domain name registration in the .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА TLDs starts, a number of names are to be reserved to meet the government and community needs. The Sunrise registration period will begin afterwards to make the domain names available to the trademark owners. An additional Priority Registration period will also be organised for the owners of the Moscow-registered means of individualization.

According to the draft Concept the Sunrise and Priority Registration periods fee per domain name is to make for the accredited registrars RUR 1650 ($USD55).

After the Sunrise and Priority Registration periods are over, a 2-month Landrush registration period will begin, the relevant domain name registration fees for the accredited registrars will go down gradually from RUR 150,000 ($USD5,000) to RUR 1,500 ($USD50).

The Foundation has set for the registrars the domain registration fee in respect of the General Availability period at the level of RUR 150 ($USD5).

Following the public comment period the Concept will be updated accordingly and approved by the FAITID Board to provide subsequently a basis for preparation of a policy set which regulates the domain name registration procedure in the .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА TLDs.

According to the New gTLD Program timeline the .МОСКВА TLD introduction is to be approved by ICANN in April 2013, while the .MOSCOW top-level domain approval is to follow June this year.

"Within the domain application evaluation process ICANN panelists sent us a number of clarifying questions on the technical and financial aspects of the .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА introduction and further operation,” said Dmitry Burkov, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Assistance for Internet Technologies and Infrastructure Development. “ICANN will take into account the answers given to these questions, when making a final decision on approval of our applications. We believe ICANN will approve the .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА domains implementation in the nearest future, and we call upon the Internet community representatives to take a pro-active part in the discussions of the Concept of domain name registration in the TLDs for Russian capital.”