Russia’s state communications watchdog has started seizing .ru website domains without waiting for parliamentary approval of a proposed law, The Moscow Times has learned.
Russian domain registrar Reg.ru informed The Moscow Times’ Russian service on Wednesday that it had stopped delegating the moscowtimes.ru domain following a complaint from Roskomnadzor, the watchdog.
“Delegation of the domain www.moscowtimes.ru has been terminated under clause 5.5 of the Rules for Registration of Domain Names in the .Ru and .РФ zones,” Reg.ru said in its notice.
The notice did not include any justification for the move.
Under rules updated in mid-2025, registrars can suspend domains based on requests from law enforcement or Roskomnadzor if the domain uses personal data without consent or hosts content deemed restricted in Russia.
Earlier on Tuesday, the independent outlet Republic reported that its domain republic.ru had also been affected.
Moscowtimes.ru was blocked in Russia in March 2022 over its coverage of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Moscow Times was later designated an “undesirable” organization in Russia, banning it from operating inside the country.
A draft law currently before parliament would require all owners of .ru and .рф domains to verify their identities through the government portal Gosuslugi and establish a registry of accredited registrars.
Lawyers say the measure could effectively turn domain registration into a revocable permit.
Readers in Russia can access The Moscow Times’ Russian service via mirror sites and its Telegram channel, while the site remains available internationally on an alternative domain.
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