September 4-22, 2014, .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА will have the Limited Registration Period III (for the Moscow Government, Moscow municipal authorities, and the federal authorities of the Russian Federation).

This is a period for registration of domain names previously reserved by the Foundation for Assistance for Internet Technologies and Infrastructure Development (FAITID) for the needs of the City of Moscow and the Russian Federation.

Such reserved domains include names for various city projects, e.g., ШКОЛА.МОСКВА [SCHOOL.MOSCOW] or MUSEUM.MOSCOW (these domains will be used further third level names’ registrations for Moscow's schools and museums).

"Today the websites of the Moscow Government primarily use domain names ending with .MOS.RU," says Dmitry Burkov, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Assistance for Internet Technologies. ".MOSCOW and .МОСКВА are easier to understand and better-looking, users clearly associate them with the Russian capital. We hope that the Moscow Government and Moscow municipal authorities will soon start using them for their websites."

First names for the Moscow Government's websites started working in May 2014. For example, GOVERNMENT.MOSCOW and MAYOR.MOSCOW redirect users to the Moscow Government's website, while ГОРОД.МОСКВА [CITY.MOSCOW] redirects users to GOROD.MOS.RU.

Authorities may register domain names reserved for them by applying to the registrars accredited for .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА after receiving special activation keys from FAITID.

After the Limited Registration Period III is completed, .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА domain names will become available for the general public. Landrush period (registration at the higher prices that will go down every week) will start September 24. General Availability (registration at the standard price — about 600 RUB a year for end users) will start December 1. 

Earlier, .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА had Sunrise and Limited Registration periods for right holders. During these periods, the domain names were registered by large Russian and international brands like Hitachi, Apple, Gucci, Rolex, McDonald's, Avtodom, Winzavod, Tsum, Expocentre, etc., as well as by Moscow's mass media, non-profit organizations, and owners of trade names and appellations of origin.