Ukraine requests ICANN and crypto exchanges block Russia, Namecheap tells Russian customers to leave
ICANN requested to top-level domains associated with Russia, while Russian Namecheap customers told to find a new home for their domains
Domain registrar Namecheap has told its Russia-based customers that it would no longer be able to offers services to them and that must immediately find alternative domain registrars.
'Unfortunately, due to the Russian regime's war crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine, we will no longer be providing services to users registered in Russia,' the company said in an email sent to customers.
'While we sympathise that this war may not affect your own views or opinion on the matter, the fact is, your authoritarian government is committing human rights abuses and engaging in war crimes so this is a policy decision we have made and will stand by.'
Namecheap is advising Russian users to transfer their top-level domains to other providers by March 6, and said it is willing to assist individuals who call out for assistance with the transition.
The company said that Russian-registered clients who use Namecheap Hosting, EasyWP, or Private Email services with a .ru, .su, .xn--p1ai (р), .by, or.xn--90ais (eл) domain offered by another registrar will now receive 404 errors.
Some angry users said that the company's decision unfairly penalised Russian people, many of whom oppose the invasion.
Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall responded by saying that the users can still select from various alternative providers to receive the same services.
"We haven't blocked the domains, we are asking people to move. There are plenty of other choices out there when it comes to infrastructure services so this isn't 'deplatforming'," Kirkendall explained.
Ukraine requests ICANN revoke Russian domains
Namecheap's decision comes at the time when the Ukrainian government is also requesting that ICANN, the nonprofit organisation that oversees the internet, revoke all domains assigned to Russia, including.ru.
On Monday, Ukraine's First Vice Prime Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, requested Göran Marby, CEO of ICANN, to disable country code top-level domains associated with Russia and to shut down the primary Domain Name System (DNS) servers in the country.
In an email sent to Marby, Fedorov stated that the Putin administration had used internet infrastructure to propagandise its war effort, therefore ICANN should take tough actions against Russia.
He specifically requested the revocation of domains such as '.ru', '.рф', and '.su' used by the Russian Federation, as well as withdrawing the associated TLS/SSL certificates.
Removing Russia's access to DNS root servers would prevent Russian ISPs from engaging with the outside networks that connect internet users to websites, thereby blocking access to Russian websites.
However, it is unlikely that ICANN will fulfil such a request.
Crypto exchanges
Economic sanctions imposed by numerous countries are currently wreaking havoc on Russia's financial industry.
Last week, Mykhailo Fedorov also requested global crypto exchanges to block users based in Russia.
Fedorov said that it was "crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians but also to sabotage ordinary users".
So far, cryptocurrency firms have refused to comply with Ukraine's request to prohibit all Russian users.
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, said it is taking steps to restrict the accounts of particular people affected by the sanctions, although it has no plans to extend the ban to ordinary Russian account holders.
Kraken exchange chief Jesse Powell said that he understood the reasoning behind the request but declined to extend the ban.
Crypto firms, however, have not turned a blind eye to the situation.
Binance said on Monday that it would give at least $10 million to humanitarian initiatives addressing the world's rising refugee crisis.