Yes, public comment like this is an ordinary part of their rulemaking. You can see something similar if you read, e.g. the responses to requests for DMCA excep

Yes, public comment like this is an ordinary part of their rulemaking. You can see something similar if you read, e.g. the responses to requests for DMCA exceptions from the Library of Congress. It may seem weird, but plenty of interested parties have lawyers bring up whatever legal points they wish to raise. But that's also why I don't see them paying attention to the wishes of the general public at all. Most of us aren't lawyers and unless we raise some legal point, nothing we say actually matters to them at all. I think it's pretty clear that they went ahead with plans they had from the start. So whether or not Russians or other foreigners commented in a web form open to the world or not, I don't see it as having mattered one bit.