Is it about alternative root management, or is it something else? For example, in the case of the Russian Federation, one recurring theme is that they don't want the US government to be able to disconnect Russia from the Internet. On one hand, it is a political problem. But on the other hand, it is also a technical problem. Can we design some kind of redundant system so that even if ICANN wanted to, they could not replace the ownership of a national domain like .RU without explicit agreement of the corresponding government? And by the way, I did not come up with this question by myself -- Steve Crocker did, during is final address as departing ICANN chairman. -- Christian Huitema