RIGF 2019 — The 10th Russian Internet Governance Forum — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

1. The 10th Russian Internet Governance Forum (RIGF 2019) met at Moscow's Lotte Hotel on 8 April 2019 — a milestone edition coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the .RU domain, and marked by a greeting from President Putin.
2. A plenary titled "Russia in the Global Web" anchored four blocks: information security and quality, new technologies, and women leaders in IT. The Virtuti Interneti award went to Jovan Kurbalija, author of 'An Introduction to Internet Governance.'
3. The president invoked "the principle of the freedom of the Internet" in the same year Russia was legislating for autonomous operation of its network — making this forum a revealing historical document of that tension.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on RIGF 2019 — The 10th Russian Internet Governance Forum draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.

Conference at a Glance (from official records)

(See the source list at the end of this article.)

Discussion Digest — from the Session Records

Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.

1. Putin's Greeting — Internet Freedom Paired with Risk Control

Sessions: Opening ceremony (8 April; read by First Deputy Chief of Staff Sergei Kiriyenko)

"I am confident that we should continue to follow the principle of the freedom of the Internet, creating conditions for a wide exchange of information and the implementation of business initiatives and startups"
— President Vladimir Putin (written greeting) — official English version [3][4]

"At the same time, it is also important to counter the risks and challenges of cyber crime and the spread of illegal content"
— President Vladimir Putin (from the same greeting) — official English version [3][4]

• The greeting recalled that 25 years earlier it was hard to imagine the internet would radically change the world, noting how social media, remote work and online government services had become everyday life [3][4]
• Its pairing of 'freedom of the Internet' with 'countering risks' distils the tension in Russian internet policy of the period, caught between openness and tightening regulation [3][4]

2. Russia in the Global Web — Government, UN and Tech Majors on One Stage

Sessions: Main panel "Russia in the Global Web: Successes, Challenges, Solutions" (10:00–11:30, moderated by Sophie Shevardnadze)

• Chengetai Masango (UN IGF Secretariat), presidential envoy Andrey Krutskih, Duma deputy Leonid Levin and Thomas Schneider (Swiss Federal Office of Communications) debated how global governance principles localise in Russia [2][1]
• The CEOs of Russia's two internet giants — Boris Dobrodeev (Mail.ru) and Elena Bunina (Yandex) — shared the stage with state and international representatives, a high-water mark for the series [2][1]

3. Security and Quality of Information — From the Council of Europe to ISOC and China

Sessions: Session "Security and Quality of Information" (15:30–17:30, moderated by Roman Chukov)

• Patrick Penninckx (Council of Europe), Frédéric Donck (ISOC), Guo Feng (Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Germany's Gunther Grathwohl — actors with very different positions — debated disinformation and the quality of the information space [2][5]
• Jovan Kurbalija, then serving on the UN High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation, tied the threads together in a keynote; he also received the Virtuti Interneti award and gave the laureate lecture [2][5]

4. Women Leading IT — A Pioneering Gender Session for a National IGF

Sessions: Session "Women — Leaders of the IT Industry: Success Stories" (13:00–15:00, moderated by Anna Nesterova)

• Senator Ludmila Bokova, Argentine internet-governance expert Olga Cavalli and North Macedonia's Nina Angelovska were among the women leaders sharing their career stories [2][5]
• Devoting a full national-IGF session to women's under-representation in tech and policy was ahead of its time in 2019 [2][5]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What made this edition special?

A. It was the 10th RIGF and the .RU domain's 25th birthday. President Putin sent a greeting read by a senior Kremlin official — a rare head-of-state message for any national IGF.

Q. What's the highlight?

A. The presidential pledge to 'the principle of the freedom of the Internet' — signed weeks before Russia's 'sovereign internet' law passed in May 2019. The gap between the words and the policy is the story.

Q. Why should I care?

A. It records the UN, the Council of Europe, China, Russia and Western companies debating disinformation at one table — close to the last such gathering before fragmentation deepened.

What Is Russia IGF? (for first-time readers)

Russia IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.

Why It Matters to You

What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2019 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.

Sources & References

1. RIGF 2019 公式サイト — Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ (accessed 2026-07-11)
2. RIGF 2019 Agenda（プログラム・登壇者一覧） — ccTLD .RU/.РФ調整センター (accessed 2026-07-11)
3. Putin calls for maintaining freedom of Internet — TASS（タス通信・英語版） (accessed 2026-07-11)
4. Greetings on opening of 10th Russian Internet Governance Forum — kremlin.ru 英語版 (accessed 2026-07-11)
5. Президент России Владимир Путин поздравил участников RIGF 2019 с 25-летием Рунета（プーチン大統領がRIGF 2019参加者にルネット25周年の祝辞・露語） — Connect-WIT (accessed 2026-07-11)
6. RIGF 2019 Press Center — ccTLD .RU/.РФ調整センター (accessed 2026-07-11)

Quotes are translated or condensed from the records listed above. Bracketed numbers [n] refer to the source list.

Related links

• IGF official (NRI list): https://www.intgovforum.org/en/content/national-and-regional-igf-initiatives
• Japan IGF: https://japanigf.jp/
• Yuki Nakazawa's blog: https://nkzw.jp/category/igf/

Revision History

Rev. 1 — published 7 June 2019, 13:00 (Article published)

Rev. 2 — updated 17 July 2026, 12:32 (Fully revised into the in-depth edition: added the 3-line summary, minutes digest, short talk, source list and diagrams (all quotes verified against the listed sources))

— 中澤祐樹