In accordance with the decision made by Interdepartmental Commission on Supporting Russia’s Participation in the Second Phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and Implementing Its Decisions, the Russian Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications set up a working group for shaping Russia’s point of view on the issue of Internet governance at the second phase of WSIS.

The first meeting of the above WG took place on 20 October 2005 in the Hall of Ministry Collegium. The group aims at discussing and drafting recommendations on the following issues:

• Working definition of the Internet and Internet governance;
• Further steps and future agreements concerning Internet governance on the international level;
• Position of the main stakeholders within the preparatory process concerning the Internet governance issue.

The discussion was based on the materials drafted in the course of the third meeting of Preparatory Committee (PrepCom-3) of the second stage of WSIS. Information in Russian about the event, which took place on 19-30 September 2005 in Geneva, was presented by the Institute of the Information Society:

http://www.iis.ru/content/view/109/91/
http://www.iis.ru/content/view/110/91/
http://www.iis.ru/content/view/116/91/
http://www.iis.ru/content/view/117/91/
http://www.iis.ru/content/view/119/91/
http://www.iis.ru/content/view/120/91/

as well as release of the main results of PrepCom3 on the Russia Development Gateway:

http://www.russia-gateway.ru/content//NEWS/NewsItem_3104632.

Materials in Russian and English on the Internet governance can be viewed at WSIS site in the section of Sub-Committee A (Internet Governance).

The meeting of the WG held in the Russian Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications was chaired by Maxim Timofeev, Deputy Director General of the Department of International Cooperation. The WG members were presented an overview of major results obtained by the international multi-stakeholder Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG, UN) established in November 2004. The presentation was made by Andrey Svechnikov, Ministry of IT and Communications of RF. The group was intended to provide preliminary view of the problem of “Internet Government” at the Tunis stage of WSIS. The WG follows the major aim to prepare open debates among all stakeholders concerning the mechanism of Internet governance, and draft recommendations to be considered in Tunis. The Final report by WGIG was published in Geneva on 18 July 2005 with comments of different interested groups and formed basis for stormy discussions throughout PrepCom-3.

The meeting of the working group in the Russian Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications mainly discussed the question whether it is necessary to specify the position of the RF on Internet governance which had already been represented at PrepCom-3:

[New] 62bis. We agree that, (see item48 WSIS-II/PC-3DOC/5) any organizational form for the governance function/oversight function should adhere to the following principles:

• No single Government should have a pre-eminent role in relation to international Internet governance.
• The organizational form for the governance function will be multilateral, transparent and democratic, with the full involvement of Governments, the private sector, civil society and international organizations.

• The organizational form for the governance function will involve all stakeholders and relevant intergovernmental and international organizations within their respective roles.

The discussion revealed divergence of views among Russian stakeholders on a number of issues.

In particular, governmental representatives vote for strengthening the role of government in Internet regulation, while civil society members advocate equal participation of all stakeholders - government, business and non-governmental organizations.

Besides, government and civil society displayed similar positive view on the new model of international cooperation assuming creation of an international body that would act as an international Internet governance institution, replacing in this function the US Department of Commerce and substituting ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee (ICANN GAC). Such institution should among other things shape the international governmental policy concerning Internet and provide proper control over Internet resources management, e.g. over adding to or excluding from the root zone file, administration of IP addresses, introduction of new gTLD and delegation and re-delegation of ccTLD. At the same time business community represented by Internet service providers prefers to keep the present state of affairs, fearing that such international body could turn out to be inefficient.

All stakeholders support the idea of establishing a new multi-stakeholder forum for improving the Internet governance policy.

The overall idea expressed by the participants can be stated as follows: Russia’s point of view is fairly balanced and can be considered as acceptable at the present stage of discussions concerning this complicated issue. However, it is possible that before the Tunis stage of WSIS this view be changed taking into account opinions of different stakeholders, which will be generalized by the Russian Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications and passed to the interdepartmental delegation of the RF at the second phase of WSIS. The deadline for submitting recommendations is 27 October 2005.

IIS representative in the working group for shaping Russia’s point of view on the issue of Internet governance at the second phase of WSIS was Tatiana Ershova, General Director.