On April 25, 2013, the Fourth Russian Internet Governance Forum has opened in Moscow, Russia. The forum was hosted by the Coordination Center for TLD RU/РФ, with the Technical Center of Internet as a general sponsor.

At the opening, the Minister of Mass Media and Communications of the Russian Federation has noted that Russia is currently number one in Europe by the number of the Internet users and is among the larger Internet commonwealths. Russia should take the worldwide experience into account and contribute to global Internet development, and Russian IGF plays a very significant part in this.

Neelie Kroes, VP of the European Commission, thinks that Russia is a critical player in the global digital economy, and that Russian and European expert collaboration is very important to develop economy, society and democratic freedoms. This principle is also shared by Janis Karklins, the Assistant Director General of Communication and Information of UNESCO, who thinks that Russian participation in the multistakeholder Internet governance process is very important.

Desiree Miloshevic, the chair of the Internet Society Advisory Council of Organisational members, has also noted Russian efforts in developing the Internet and governing it, saying that RIGF is a very important international event indeed. Miloshevic is sure that Russia will continue to take part in solving all critical Internet problems – be it deploying IPv6 and DNSSEC, developing new standards, or anything else.

Philippe Bouillat, director general of the Council of Europe directorate general on Human Rights and Rule of Law, thinks that there's no freedom without security. Bouillat thinks that nobody is attempting to take freedom of expression away, but that this freedom should not infringe on other people's rights. His opinion is that the priorities here are ensuring child safety in the Internet, fighting cybercriminals and protecting personal data.

Steve Crocker presented his "Less is more: present and future of the multistakeholder model" report and noted that the Internet activity in Russia is very impressive. Since the introduction of the .РФ TLD is still a leading IDN in the entire world, Crocker says.

Steve Crocker has received an Internet Merits award from Andrei Kolesnikov, the Coordination Center director, who said that Crocker is "an Internet legend". "Many things that seem common to us today have arised from the assertiveness, minds and engineering skills of the like of Steve Crocker," Kolesnikov says. "It was him who invented the RFC standard, the building block of the Internet, and it was him who worked at the ARPANet, which the Internet originated from".

The video of Steve Crocker's speech will be available at the Forum website soon.