The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has registered Russia's national Cyrillic domain as .рф, the Russian Press and Communications Ministry said on Friday.
The letters are equivalent to the Latin alphabet letters rf, which stands for Russian Federation.
"The Russian Federation has become the first country in the world to be given the right to launch a national Cyrillic domain .рф," the ministry said in its statement.
Russia's Coordination Center for the National Internet Domain, which administered the process, said ICANN's decision was the final step towards the creation of the Russian-language domain.
"All bureaucratic obstacles have been overcome. Both the principal and the physical delegation of the domain have been approved. There is no going back now," member center Yulia Ovchinnikova said.
In November 2008, .рф was approved by ICANN following a request by President Dmitry Medvedev. The domain is aimed at raising the status of Russian as a global language, and is hoped to expand Internet use among Russian speakers unfamiliar with Latin characters.
National domains in Arabic were also given to Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
MOSCOW, April 23 (RIA Novosti)
