Several years ago I was prepared to purchase¹ swear.by so I could use foo.to.swear.by for a variety of foo. After receiving a printed application from the government of Belarus, I decided to quickly educate myself about life there. I'm glad I did. It made me decide not to get the domain name. I couldn't give that government any money in good conscience.

I know it hurts to let a domain name go, especially if you're using it, but I urge you not to renew. That government doesn't deserve our money.

¹Let's face it, rent is the correct term.

Life there is probably better than in any other CIS state, on average (or it was before the recession). Freedom is another question but the answer depends on your definition of that.

Anyone who was happy with .ly should be happy with .by

My complements.

If only the western governments held themselves to the same moral standards while considering financial support for the Belarusian regime.