We will always defend the rights of Internet users by all means available to us.

Last week, it was revealed that the domain name kraina.org.ua had been lost by the BYuT bloc and re-registered to leaders of the Internet Party of Ukraine. We present an interview with Dmitry Golubov, leader of the Internet Party of Ukraine, about the kraina.org.ua domain, the domain market, and the Ukrainian Internet in general.

—Have you received any offers from the BYuT to return the domain or sell it? Under what conditions would you be willing to return the domain to its previous owners?

The domain was not registered for resale or return. BYuT and Tymoshenko are on the 30th day of domain HOLD.kraina.org.uathe Cabinet of Ministers is consideringconcept of the law on the fundamentals of communication policy— that is, about how authorities should conduct dialogue with citizens.

Isn't it very symbolic? A truly functioning communications platform has been completely down for a month, there's been no activity for over a year, and yet the authorities are still pondering new concepts.

Should the domain be returned to such politicians? We plan to resume operations, and anyone who truly cares about what happens to Ukraine tomorrow will be able to join.

— Can we say that a kind of domain Robin Hood has appeared on the Ukrainian Internet, who is saving domains and websites abandoned by politicians?

It's fair to say that our fundamental position is the active participation of every citizen in the political life of our country. While many politicians view online projects as mere campaign toys, those who believe their promises and participate in such projects represent the very active segment of society that wants and can change our lives for the better. Not tapping into this intellectual potential would be foolish, to say the least, given that some of the smartest people in the world are Ukrainians. We cannot allow these people to be deceived or their hopes dashed; our duty is to consolidate all constructive forces in the country.

— Recently, the country's authorities have been actively trying to regulate the internet, imposing a tax, and forcing media outlets to register. The Internet Party has been holding various protests. How do you plan to protect internet users next year? Is the standoff outside the Verkhovna Rada effective enough, or are more proactive measures needed? What do you think?

We will always defend the rights of internet users by all means available to us. Protests help draw public attention to a problem, and if the issue is not allowed to remain silent, there's every chance it will be resolved.

At all times, the government wants to silence people, and Ukraine is no exception. While previously the internet community lacked a force that systematically defended their interests, now it does. I believe we've shown all of Ukraine that online action produces results. On December 10th, we launched an information campaign against the internet tax. We posted a video on YouTube informing internet users about this brilliant initiative and calling for a protest. On December 17th, the Prime Minister of Ukraine responded to our campaign, announcing that she did not support her MP's initiative. Then, on December 18th, BYuT MP Yatsenko registered a bill to repeal the internet tax. And all this in just eight days! During this time, the video has been viewed by over 50,000 people, and over 22,000 people have supported the VKontakte group against the internet tax. We also collected approximately 15,000 signatures against repealing the tax, all from the comfort of their homes. With these actions, we demonstrated a completely new approach to fighting for our rights against the authorities, and these actions proved effective. Now, in possession of Tymoshenko's domainkraina.org.uaWe once again urge her to promote the inclusion of the Internet tax abolition bill 4764/P on the agenda. We will always defend the rights of internet users by all means available to us. Protests help draw public attention to the problem, and if the issue is not allowed to remain silent, there is every chance it will be resolved.

Our party has approximately 50,000 members, compared to just 10,000 just a year ago. This demonstrates that people are ready to actively participate in public life, but they are not being given the opportunity. For example, the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice has refused to register us for 10 months. We will not support the current candidates, as none of them represent the interests of our country. We continue to receive repeated offers to support this or that candidate, but we have always refused and will continue to do so. The entire "political riffraff" has discredited itself; 50 people own 80% of the country's wealth, which is unfair. Under these circumstances, a complete change at the political elite is essential. We must bring in people who have not previously been involved in politics or corruption, and who have no ties to the nouveau riche. We currently do not plan to participate in the 2010 parliamentary elections, as our party is legally ineligible to participate in elections for one year after its registration. But in the next parliamentary elections in 2012, we will definitely take part and take a sufficiently large number of seats.

Regarding Cyrillic domains, .УКР is the correct translation of the three-letter English abbreviation according to ISO 3166-1, so it seems logical. However, this is the Cyrillic name of the root zone, and nothing prevents Ukraine from registering Cyrillic domains in the existing .ua domain. Provided the .ua administrator implements appropriate security measures preventing the registration of domains similar to existing ones (such as the Russian letter "a" instead of the English one), I believe introducing Cyrillic domains in the existing .ua domain or its subdomains is a viable alternative to creating an entirely new root zone. There's no need to rush the .УКР delegation.

The state isn't obligated to replace the activities of organizations that are currently functioning normally. Control can mean different things. Transferring all responsibilities for managing domain zones to the SBU or wherever they want is clearly too much. But if by control we mean the legislative framework and the proper functioning of the judicial system, then the state can positively influence the development of the domain name system. If recourse to international arbitration is no longer necessary to resolve domain name disputes in our zones, and if we can trust our courts (which they are still far from), then I view this positively.

The current .ua domain registration procedure is a good compromise of interests. For many years, both com.ua and regional zones have existed with free registration. Anyone who needs a domain name can register and use it. The fact that .ua has different, more stringent registration rules only gives UAnet another alternative. If the .ua rules were equalized with .com.ua, we would simply get a four-letter shortening of the address, but the quality of registration would decline. Even with mandatory trademark registration in .UA, there are problems, such as the well-knowngoogle.uaWhich belongs not to the search engine, but to Kyiv-based Go Ogle LLC. By equating .ua with com.ua, the number of such problems will only increase, and it's not certain that the benefit of shortening the address will offset them.

Unfortunately, the main events of the past year were negative, such as the closure of Infostore, the Fregat and Megalan providers, the "404" bill, and, of course, Terekhin's Internet tax bill. The government hasn't performed well in the past year. I would have expected more appropriate government action in 2010, but, as they say, time will tell. The Internet Party will take a proactive stance on future issues and attempt to address them.