French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy (left) with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in January (epa)
August 16, 2006 -- The French Foreign Ministry today said that three officials at the French Embassy in Moscow have been sacked and four have resigned after the discovery of a visa scam.
The ministry said funds have been "misappropriated due to anomalies in the handling of some applications."
AFP quotes a source in the French embassy in Moscow as saying that several consular officials were suspected of taking bribes to speed up the delivery of visas.
(AFP)