You're reading: Domain name registrar Go Daddy ceases Crimean operations over sanctions

Moscow - The world's largest registrar of domain names, Go Daddy, has ceased providing services for residents of Crimea, following the U.S. government decision to impose sanctions against the region, the company said in a statement sent to Crimean Internet users on Jan. 29.

The U.S. has recently introduced new trade restrictions which prohibit U.S. companies from conducing business with individual and companies based in the Crimean region of Ukraine; as a result, the company can longer provide its services to these clients, Go Daddy said in a notice, a copy of which was provided to Interfax by the Simferopol-based programmer Maxim Serdyuk.

Go Daddy told Crimean users to re-register their domains and web hosting with other sites before Jan. 31.

According to our data, you could be based in Crimea, and if this data is correct, unfortunately we will have to delete your account and the products provided to you on Jan. 31, the domain name registrar said in the notice.

Go Daddy also promised users to repay the unused portion of their payment for web hosting and domain names.

“This may be unpleasant but is no big problem: domain names could be re-registered with another company within one day,” Serdyuk said.