It was run on a .ru domain years ago, and I believe the exchange was based in Russia at that time. It was banned by the Russian government, and supposedly the exchange moved operations to Bulgaria and/or Cyprus. The .com domain was eventually also banned by Russia, so they mostly use the .nz domain. That domain has yet to be seized.

I didn't verify for myself, but I saw someone post earlier that btc-e.top was showing a mirror of the old site. They said the domain was registered to the same company as btc-e.nz .... VERY interesting if so. Apparently btc-e.top was also redirecting to Exmo (a Russian exchange with alleged ties to BTC-e). I wish I could find that thread now....