1.   Georgy Vlaskin, the Russian consul in Seattle, who will award Smirnoff his patents, says the new honorary consul himself is seen by many as a gateway.

2.   The Russian consul in New York visits almost every day.

3.   But the Duma claimed last week that Moldova would not allow the opening of a Russian consul and was blocking foreign credits.

4.   On Tuesday night, Yepishin got a visit from Russian consul Mikhail Afanasyev, aimed at working out the final details of the documents.

5.   The ITAR-Tass news agency reported that Borodin met with the Russian consul in New York and called his arrest a political provocation.

6.   The Russian consul in the Svalbards, Vladimir Ilyich Onosha, was quoted by NTB as saying he had no information about the accident.

7.   Greece is refusing to hand over the archives of the last Russian consul in Crete during the Ottoman Empire until the Salonica Jewish archive is returned.