The 16th Russian Internet Governance Forum (RIGF 2026) was held in Moscow from April 7 to 8. The event was conducted in a hybrid format, hosting more than 600 participants on-site, while online attendees exceeded 5,000. Over the course of the two-day forum, nine sections took place involving 67 expert speakers.
Andrey Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, welcomed the forum participants, noting that RIGF is traditionally held on the birthday of the .RU ccTLD, which now has over 6.1 million domain names registered. In 2025, growth amounted to almost 253,000 registrations, indicating an increase of over 4 percent, with the primary contribution to this growth coming from the regions.
Tatyana Matveeva, Head of the Russian Presidential Directorate for the Development of Information and Communication Technologies and Communications Infrastructure, reported that more than 130 million people, or 93 percent of Russia’s population, use the internet, and that Russia is one of only three countries globally that have established digital sovereignty.
“In many respects, this sovereignty comprises already-familiar services: search engines, e-government platforms, email providers, mobile app stores, a national payment system, domestic social networks, and video hosting platforms. It can be said that a sovereign digital ecosystem has been built within the Runet,” she emphasized.
Sergey Boyarsky, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, noted that while the internet is inherently cross-border, it is crucial to create safe spaces within it.
“Last year, our committee, together with the Committee for Digital Development, the Ministry of Digital Development, and the Presidential Executive Office, dedicated itself to combating fraudulent activities on the internet. We adopted a comprehensive package of measures aimed at countering this destructive phenomenon within a short timeframe,” he stated.
Alexander Shoitov, Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media, spoke on the ongoing work to counter cyberattacks and fraud.
“The state is taking systemic countermeasures: a law on critical infrastructure has been adopted, technical requirements for trusted software are being formulated, and measures are being improved to counter cyberattacks. Additionally, the first Antifraud legislative package was adopted in 2025, and a second set of measures has already passed its first reading. This will enhance the resilience of Russia’s information infrastructure,” he explained.
Andrey Kuzmichev, Head of the Runity group, reported on the requirements for the identification of domain administrators, which are set to come into effect on September 1. He noted that Ru-Center is the first among Russian registrars to have implemented such identification for legal entities, and called on market participants to ramp up user awareness efforts to mitigate the risk of users losing control over their digital assets.
Alexey Rogdev, Director General of the Technical Center of Internet, emphasized that the internet in Russia is becoming a mature institution governed by clear rules and predictable logic.
“The industry is entering a mature phase, with standards being established, legislative regulation taking shape, and the underlying infrastructure expanding. This is a natural stage, and we expect it to strengthen the entire system, making it more stable, secure, and understandable for all participants,” he added.
Participants in a plenary session, ‘WSIS+20: A Quarter Century of Building the Information Society. From Words to Action?’ discussed the principles of international engagement in digital development, practices of digital cooperation, tools to combat disinformation and destructive content, the need to regulate deepfake technology, key points of disagreement, and the prospects for maintaining meaningful dialogue amid a shifting international agenda.
Artur Lyukmanov of the Russian Foreign Ministry discussed the preparation of the Global Digital Compact (GDC) as well as the revisions it underwent during the process. He emphasized that the key requirement for all global corporations today is a respectful attitude toward other states and companies that takes their interests into account.
Alexey Goreslavsky of the Institute for Internet Development (IRI) highlighted that the internet is not a sterile environment and cannot be made so, even if desired. He noted that every country essentially promotes its own set of fundamental values through content production. The head of IRI pointed out that over the past 30 years, Russia has experienced the dominance of Hollywood cinema, but over the past five years, state support channeled through IRI, the Cinema Foundation, and the Ministry of Culture has started to shift this trend. In 2024–2025, 85 percent of the audience watched Russian TV series, while 40 percent chose to watch foreign ones.
Dmitry Gulyaev of the Russian Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC) presented the practical steps taken by the Association, as an organization that brings businesses together, to build a new architecture for international digital cooperation.
The issue of preserving cultural identity and linguistic diversity in the global digital environment grows more pressing each year, and one of the RIGF 2026 sections was dedicated to this subject.
“If a language is not represented on the internet, it gradually disappears from everyday life. Without keyboard layouts, dictionaries, or machine translation systems, using the language in the digital environment becomes extremely difficult. This is no longer a hypothetical threat but a reality faced by dozens of minority languages worldwide,” section moderator Andrey Vorobyev emphasized.
Farid Nakhli of the of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) noted that the initiative proposed by ICANN to develop new indicators for assessing the implementation of universal acceptance principles for multilingual domains and email addresses could encourage countries to adopt these approaches more actively in public and government services. He stressed, however, that the initiative and the specific list of metrics should originate from the technical community and then be brought forward for discussion at ITU platforms.
Timur Tsybikov of the Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs reported on the outcomes of an extensive monitoring effort concerning the state and development of languages of the peoples of Russia in the field of information technology. The monitoring involved 41 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, collecting information on 70 languages of the peoples of Russia. Since 2024, the number of languages with electronic dictionaries has increased from 59 that year to 68 in 2025. Language corpora have been created for 42 languages, while digital keyboards have been developed for 59.
During a session titled Digital Transformation of Russian Healthcare: Evolving Roles, Data, and the Future of Medicine, experts discussed the impact of digital technologies and AI on clinical practice and user experience.
They noted that the key effect is achieved through the integration of solutions rather than through individual tools. Experts paid special attention to data quality and accessibility, the risks of AI errors, issues of regulation and security in medical data circulation, and the changing role of physicians in light of the increasing use of digital services by patients. Access to data and the need to build trust in technologies were cited among the key challenges.
“Artificial intelligence in medicine is no longer a question of the future, but a question of how exactly we are implementing it. It doesn’t replace doctors; rather, it becomes a fully-fledged tool. And the quality of the entire healthcare system depends on how efficiently we build this connection,” concluded Vadim Gluschenko, Director of the Center for Global IT Cooperation.
The Virtuti Interneti award ceremony was also held during the forum, with the award presented to Karen Kazaryan, Director of Analytics at ANO Digital Economy and General Director of the Internet Research Institute.
At the RIGF 2026 closing ceremony, the forum’s outcomes were summarized, and the results of the sixth Youth Special Course and the Youth Theses on Internet Governance were presented. The Center for Global IT Cooperation also introduced a new collection of articles, Internet Today and Tomorrow.
Andrey Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center, emphasized that while the forum itself was concluding, the dialogue was not:
“We leave this venue with new questions, new contacts, and most importantly, with the understanding that digital development requires ongoing, honest , and professional conversation.”
The Russian Internet Governance Forum is organized by the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ and the Center for Global IT Cooperation with the support of the Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media.
General partner of the forum: Technical Center of Internet; strategic partner: Russian Institute for Public Networks (RIPN); partner: Runiti
General information partner: TASS
Official media partner: Rambler&Co
Official video partner: RUTUBE