Andrey Kolesnikov: "Cybersquatters won't buy expensive domains."

Coordination Center for the National Internet DomainpublishedinterviewDirector Andrey Kolesnikov, in which he expressed his opinion regarding the danger of cybersquatters for registrations in the .РФ domain zone.

According to Andrey Kolesnikov, Russian cybersquatters won't buy domains at very high prices: "A Russian cybersquatter is, as a rule, a private individual operating with cash within the budget of 'buy for 1,000 rubles, sell for 3,000 rubles.'"

For this reason, Kolesnikov believes, Russian cybersquatters will not have any influence on registrations in the .РФ domain zone, at least initially, while the registration cost is relatively high.

Furthermore, Kolesnikov believes that the existing registration conditions, namely the requirement to have a registered trademark, are a serious obstacle to cybersquatters.

Kolesnikov also emphasizes that “in order to reserve a domain, you must be a legal entity... have a certificate from Rospatent.

According to Andrey Kolesnikov, the risk of cybersquatters influencing the .РФ domain is likely to occur much later, specifically when the domain registration price drops below 1,000 rubles. However, Kolesnikov agrees that "given the richness of the Russian language and the limitations of Latin-script domain names, cybersquatters will have ample scope for creativity. But the cybersquatting market is always limited by the actual demand for domain names in a given domain zone, and there are never more cybersquatters than the market dictates."