--- title: "Full transition to Cyrillic: Russia launches support for email addresses without Latin characters" description: "📧 **Full Cyrillic in email:** The Internet Technical Center has launched support for email addresses without a single Latin letter. You can now write info@site.rf. 🔹 **Technology:** The EAI and SMTPUTF8 standards, adopted back in 2012, have been implemented. 🔹 **Statistics:** More than 806,000 domains are registered in the .РФ zone. 🔹 **Context:** Russia is a leader in the implementation of Cyrillic IDN among CIS and European countries. #Technology #Internet #Cyrillic #RF" date: 2026-08-17T23:44:58.000Z lang: en url: https://xab.info/en/posts/full-transition-to-cyrillic-russia-launches-support-for-email-addresses-without-latin-characters tags: [internet, russia, technology, email, cybersecurity, tci] publisher: "XAB.info" --- # Full transition to Cyrillic: Russia launches support for email addresses without Latin characters ![Hand holding a white envelope on blue background — symbolizing Russia’s shift to Cyrillic-based email addresses](https://xab.info/media/2026/08/18/polnyj-perehod-na-kirillitsu-v-rossii-zapushhena-podderzhka-elektronnyh-adresov-bez-latinicy/polnyj-perehod-na-kirillitsu-v-rossii-zapushhena-podderzhka-elektronnyh-adresov-bez-latinicy-1.webp) ## 🎯 Key Points - The Internet Technical Center has implemented support for fully Cyrillic email addresses. - The EAI and SMTPUTF8 standards, adopted in 2012, are now working to their full potential. - More than 806,000 names are registered in the .РФ domain zone. - Russia is among the countries with a developed infrastructure for Cyrillic domains. ### Technical breakthrough: end of the hybrid address era The Internet Technical Center (ITC), the operator of the national top-level domains .RU and .РФ, has announced the implementation of a long-awaited feature: users can now register email addresses consisting exclusively of Russian alphabet characters. This means a complete move away from the need to use Latin letters before the "@" sign. Previously, the system only allowed a hybrid format where the local part of the address (before "@") had to be in Latin, while the domain part could be in Cyrillic (e.g., info@3dnews.ru). Now, an address like info@3dnews.ru is valid and functional. ### Technical basis: from IDNA to SMTPUTF8 The implementation of this capability became possible thanks to the realization of the EAI (Email Address Internationalization) standard and the SMTPUTF8 extension. Although these standards were adopted by the international community back in 2012 for the correct handling of national alphabet characters in the local part of addresses, their full implementation in Russian infrastructure took more than a decade. The groundwork was laid as early as 2003 with the introduction of the IDNA (Internationalized Domain Names in Applications) standard, which allowed the use of Cyrillic in domain names. However, as practice shows, the infrastructure of the Cyrillic domain zone supported the technology only partially for a long time, leaving the local part of the address "locked" in Latin. ### Statistics and usage of the .РФ domain The Russian Cyrillic top-level domain .РФ, officially delegated to Russia on May 12, 2010, continues to demonstrate significant activity. At the moment, more than 806,000 domain names are registered in the zone. An analysis of the usage structure shows that the .РФ domain is not exclusively a "technical" or "parking" resource: almost a third (32.1%) of names lead to applications and landing pages, about a quarter (24.1%) — to full-fledged unique websites. Email services account for 12.3% of the total, confirming the demand for email infrastructure in the Cyrillic zone. ### Global context of Cyrillic domains Russia is not the only country using Cyrillic in the domain zone. To date, there are 17 Cyrillic top-level domains in the world: 9 of them are national IDN domains, and 8 are generic. Belarus, Ukraine, Serbia, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and the European Union have registered their own national Cyrillic domains. However, it is the implementation of the full cycle of Cyrillic email in .РФ and .RU that places Russia among the countries with the most developed internet localization infrastructure. ## 🔍 Fact-Check Verification - [.RU and .РФ registries have started accepting fully Cyrillic email addresses](https://hi-tech.mail.ru/news/153378-reestry-ru-rf-stali-prinimat-kirillicheskie-email-adresa/) - Источник подтверждает запуск поддержки EAI и SMTPUTF8 для кириллических адресов. ## ❓ FAQ ### Q: What has changed in email address registration? **A:** You can now register addresses entirely in Cyrillic, for example, info@3dnews.ru, without using Latin characters before the "@" symbol. ### Q: Why did this become possible only now? **A:** Although the EAI and SMTPUTF8 standards were adopted in 2012, the registry infrastructure supported them only partially for a long time. Full implementation was completed only in 2026. ### Q: How many domains are registered in the .РФ zone? **A:** At the moment, more than 806,000 names are registered in the .РФ domain zone.