Russia Plans to Open New General Consulates Across World

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia is going to open new general consulates in Asia, Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Ivanov said on Wednesday.

"Now we are trying to send people to states where we have a lot of work. It is the CIS states, above all. Related work is being carried out. It is also Asian countries, by the way. There are also ideas to open new general consulates in countries where a big number of our tourists travel to or our citizens live in," Ivanov told journalists.

Russian diplomats are reorienting their work on regions that are priorities for Russian foreign policy, particularly Asia and Africa, according to the deputy minister.

Earlier in the week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia saw no reason to maintain its current diplomatic presence in Western countries, with more attention needed to be paid to countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa. The minister noted that Moscow was shifting its geographical focus from the West to the countries that are "willing to cooperate with Russia on mutually beneficial and equal terms."