Soldatov Aleksey Anatolevich

In December 2019, in Moscow, 68-year-old scientist, former Deputy Minister of Communications and Mass Media, ex-head of the computing center of the Kurchatov Institute Alexei Soldatov, and CEO of LLC "Relkom Group" Yevgeny Antipov were detained. They were accused of abuse of office. According to the investigation, the scientist and his business partner fraudulently transferred the rights to IP addresses belonging to RosNIIROS to a Czech provider." The case was opened after the intervention of the Presidential Administration. The cause of Soldatov's conflict with the Kremlin was the struggle for the .su domain, which is widely used in the Runet and, together with the .ru and .рф domains, became part of the "national domain zone" and should be controlled by the state. On December 13, 2019, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow denied the investigation's request to detain the elderly scientist and his business partner, placing them under house arrest instead. On July 4, 2024, both were released on their own recognizance not to leave. On July 22, 2024, the Savyolovsky District Court of Moscow found the defendants guilty and sentenced Alexei Soldatov to two years in a general regime colony and Yevgeny Antipov to one and a half years in a general regime colony. The 72-year-old scientist and general director were taken into custody in the courtroom. On December 2, the Moscow City Court left the sentence in force. In August 2025, Soldatova's prison sentence was replaced with a fine of 500 thousand. rubles.