To answer your question, no it's not a fee. According to the .ru ccTLD agreement documents [1], the "Coordination Center for TLD RU" (the entity which operates

To answer your question, no it's not a fee. According to the .ru ccTLD agreement documents [1], the "Coordination Center for TLD RU" (the entity which operates the .ru TLD) voluntarily agrees to pay to ICANN $30k USD annually. The document is worded that ICANN's obligation to continue letting them use it will cease if the payment isn't made, but it also states "this review will take into account all relevant circumstances." The way I read this is it's an agreement to donate per year to cover the infrastructure/overhead of ICANN, but doesn't state it's a contractual fee or payment _for_ the ccTLD. If I had to guess, if this payment does fall under sanctions/restrictions, that would be covered under "relevant circumstances" to which ICANN wouldn't just pull the rug out from Russia in the name of Internet stability. [1] https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/icann-ru-letters-25mar07-en.pdf https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/icann-ru-letters...