According to Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the French Republic in the Russian Federation Stanislas de Laboule, a French consulate will be set up in Yekaterinburg before the end of the year. The consulate will probably be located in the vicinity of Ural State University, yet no further details have been officially reported as of yet. The place where the consulate is to be housed has been undergoing some remodeling since the beginning of September. M. Laboule says they have been paying the rent since July 2007, however. The Ambassador reports the consulate will be servicing all the regions of Ural Federal District.

M. Laboule arrived in Yekaterinburg to take part in a French-Russian seminar on energy efficiency; nine French enterprises, six scientific research organizations, a French energy efficiency agency, and two hundred Russian companies attended the event.