Many countries and regions have held to date regional and national IGFs in order to support the global IGF. Such forums discuss technical, organizational and legal issues relating to use of the Internet at the national level. These regional venues provide an in-depth and efficient analysis of the Internet governance issues at the local level and subsequently transmit worldwide conclusions and recommendations formulated by the representatives of the national government, business-community and professional Internet-community to the global IGF.

Russia was a part of the gobal IGF since its first meeting. In 2010, Russia joined the group of regionally held IGFs. The Russian Internet Governance Forum hosted by the Coordination Center for TLD RU became a groundbreaking event of this kind for both Russia and Eastern Europe.

The 5th Global Internet Governance Forum held in Vilnius in 2010 offered a special session to tackle issues of national IGFs in Russia, USA and Great Britain. Representatives of the Coordination Center briefed the IGF attendees on the 1st Russian Internet Governance Forum. In particular, Leonid Todorov made a presentation on the preparation of the Russian Forum and reasons, which compelled the Russian organizations to embark on a challenging mission of organization of the event. In  her address, Julia Ovchinnikova centered on issues of ensuring participation of all stakeholders in the national forum.  Andrey Romanov analyzed the program and turned the attendees’ attention to the most interesting and urgent themes debated at the Russian Internet Governance Forum. International experts highly appreciated the Russian Federation’s role in championing the global IGF process. They emphasized a highest level of organization and implementation of the 1st Russian Internet Governance Forum and its role in promoting the process in other CIS countries and in Eastern Europe.