What is .su domain?

The .su domain was the internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to the Soviet Union. Despite the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the .su domain remained in use. The administration of the .su domain was undertaken by the Russian Institute for Public Networks (RIPN).

While officially intended to be phased out, the .su domain lingered on, primarily due to its sentimental value and the practical difficulties in migrating existing websites and email addresses to newer domains like .ru (Russia).

ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) had initially approved its deprecation and planned to phase it out, but RIPN successfully argued for its continued operation. In fact, the .su domain has experienced periods of renewed popularity, sometimes being used for purposes that are perceived as controversial or associated with nostalgia for the Soviet era.