The domain that outlived its country
.su was delegated in 1990 for the Soviet Union. Barely a year later the USSR dissolved, Russia got its own .ru, and most other successor states got their own codes. By normal logic, .su should have been phased out. It wasn't.
There was no formal mechanism to retire a ccTLD back then, and the Russian organizations that managed .su kept it running. It remains in the root zone today — the best-known example of a country code that survived its country. Compare it with .yu, which was eventually retired in 2010.
Good for
- Retro, history and nostalgia projects
- Understanding how ccTLD retirement works (and doesn't)
Watch out for
- Mixed reputation with spam and security filters
- Governed from Russia, under Russian rules
.su by the numbers
If a website ends in .su, it lives under the country-code domain of Soviet Union, a country in Europe. The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, but .su was never retired and is still delegated today.
A little context on Soviet Union: the capital is Moscow.
IANA lists Russian Institute for Development of Public Networks (ROSNIIROS) as the manager of .su, with an address in Russian Federation. ccTLD managers set their own policies — who can register, which second-level names exist, pricing to registrars — so those rules differ from country to country.
Under the hood, the root zone points to 6 name servers for .su, every one of them reachable over IPv6. The delegation is DNSSEC-signed, so resolvers can verify that answers for .su haven't been tampered with on the way. Registration data is published over WHOIS (the WHOIS server is whois.tcinet.ru).
.su FAQ
Does .su still work?
Yes. .su is still delegated in the root zone and new names can still be registered.
Why wasn't .su retired when the USSR ended?
The ISO code "SU" was withdrawn, but there was no clear process to force a ccTLD's retirement at the time, and the domain stayed in use. ICANN only adopted a formal ccTLD retirement policy decades later.
What country is .su?
.su is the country-code top-level domain for Soviet Union, in Europe.
What is Soviet Union's domain extension?
Soviet Union's website extension is .su, its country-code top-level domain. "SU" is its ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code.
Who owns the .su domain?
IANA lists Russian Institute for Development of Public Networks (ROSNIIROS) as the manager of .su: it runs the registry and sets the rules for Soviet Union's ccTLD. Individual .su names belong to whoever registers them.
Can I register a .su domain from the US?
It depends on Russian Institute for Development of Public Networks (ROSNIIROS)'s policy. Some ccTLDs are open to anyone in the world, while others require a local address, company or trademark. Check the registry or an accredited registrar before you buy.
Is .su DNSSEC-signed?
Yes. The root zone has a DS record for .su, so DNSSEC validation works all the way down from the root.
How do I look up who owns a .su domain?
Query the registry's registration data service: the WHOIS server is whois.tcinet.ru. Many registrants use privacy services, so personal details may be hidden.
Sources
Data from IANA root zone version 2026102000. Last changed October 21, 2026. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
