diff --git a/lib/core/common.py b/lib/core/common.py
index c7f8afb85..788abbbd5 100644
--- a/lib/core/common.py
+++ b/lib/core/common.py
@@ -3004,3 +3004,57 @@ def randomizeParameterValue(value):
         retVal = retVal.replace(match.group(), str(randomInt(len(match.group()))))
 
     return retVal
+
+def asciifyUrl(url, force_quote=False):
+    """
+    Attempts to make a unicode url usuable with ``urllib/urllib2``.
+
+    More specifically, it attempts to convert the unicode object ``url``,
+    which is meant to represent a IRI, to an unicode object that,
+    containing only ASCII characters, is a valid URI. This involves:
+
+        * IDNA/Puny-encoding the domain name.
+        * UTF8-quoting the path and querystring parts.
+
+    See also RFC 3987.
+
+    Reference: http://blog.elsdoerfer.name/2008/12/12/opening-iris-in-python/
+    """
+
+    parts = urlparse.urlsplit(url)
+    if not parts.scheme or not parts.netloc:
+        # apparently not an url
+        return url
+
+    # idna-encode domain
+    hostname = parts.hostname.encode('idna')
+
+    # UTF8-quote the other parts. We check each part individually if
+    # if needs to be quoted - that should catch some additional user
+    # errors, say for example an umlaut in the username even though
+    # the path *is* already quoted.
+    def quote(s, safe):
+        s = s or ''
+        # Triggers on non-ascii characters - another option would be:
+        #     urllib.quote(s.replace('%', '')) != s.replace('%', '')
+        # which would trigger on all %-characters, e.g. "&".
+        if s.encode('ascii', 'replace') != s or force_quote:
+            return urllib.quote(s.encode('utf8'), safe=safe)
+        return s
+
+    username = quote(parts.username, '')
+    password = quote(parts.password, safe='')
+    path = quote(parts.path, safe='/')
+    query = quote(parts.query, safe='&=')
+
+    # put everything back together
+    netloc = hostname
+    if username or password:
+        netloc = '@' + netloc
+        if password:
+            netloc = ':' + password + netloc
+        netloc = username + netloc
+    if parts.port:
+        netloc += ':' + str(parts.port)
+
+    return urlparse.urlunsplit([parts.scheme, netloc, path, query, parts.fragment])
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/lib/request/connect.py b/lib/request/connect.py
index 6df954892..07a7b372c 100644
--- a/lib/request/connect.py
+++ b/lib/request/connect.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import traceback
 
 from extra.multipart import multipartpost
 from lib.core.agent import agent
+from lib.core.common import asciifyUrl
 from lib.core.common import average
 from lib.core.common import calculateDeltaSeconds
 from lib.core.common import clearConsoleLine
@@ -160,6 +161,10 @@ class Connect:
         responseHeaders = None
         logHeaders = ""
 
+        # support for non-latin URLs (e.g. cyrilic) as urllib/urllib2 doesn't
+        # support those by default
+        url = asciifyUrl(url)
+
         # fix for known issues when using url in unicode format
         # (e.g. UnicodeDecodeError: "url = url + '?' + query" in redirect case)
         url = unicodeencode(url)