Impacts of the Russia Sanctions on the Domain Business
Western powers are hitting Russia very hard with sanctions. This is impacting the business of buying and selling domains. For example, Sedo has just released the notice:
The current geopolitical situation in Ukraine has a direct and indirect impact on business relations with Russian and Belarusian business partners.
Due to the current situation, we have to inform you that Sedo has suspended trading and parking for domains under .ru and .by. In addition, we are currently unable to serve customers residing in Russia or Belarus, as well as corresponding bank accounts. The affected accounts will be temporarily deactivated.
We ask for your understanding that, due to the present situation, we cannot guarantee payment processing with Russian and Belarusian business partners.
Sedo disapproves of any kind of hate and violence, as well as anything that radically contradicts our corporate values. Therefore, for the sake of the civilians involved, we hope for an early resolution of this conflict.
Name.com has also released a similar statement:
Thank you for your support of Name.com. As a US based company, Name.com is required to comply with all US laws and regulations.
Unfortunately, due to recently passed US sanctions relating to certain locations in Ukraine, Name.com is no longer able to provide services to you.
As a result, we will be forced to suspend services to your domains and account on March 21, 2022.
We ask that you please transfer your domains to another registrar before this deadline. Any domains or services remaining with Name.com on March 21, 2022 will be suspended.
Should you have any questions on the transfer process or if you would like to request that we expedite any transfers out on your behalf, you may reach out to our support team at support@name.com.
The CEO of NameCheap.com wrote this tweet:
War is always a terrible thing, it’s even worse when many of our own team members are on the ground. Our company stands firmly against Russian aggression and war crimes being committed against the people of Ukraine. Insuring the safety of our colleagues is our number one priority
— Richard Kirkendall (@NamecheapCEO) February 26, 2022
Other domain registrars and service providers have followed suit, along with social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook.
