Istanbul, April 11 -- April 11:Russia and the United States on Thursday began the second round of consultations in Istanbul, focusing on the normalisation of operation of their respective embassies. The Russian delegation is led by Moscow's Ambassador to Washington, Alexander Darchiev while the US delegation is headed by Sonata Coulter, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs.

The consultations between the two delegations, taking place at the Russian Consulate General in Istanbul, may last for several hours, reports indicated. "We should say that the substantial part of the talks is already behind us, but on the whole, the negotiations may take four or five hours," Russia's state-run news agency TASS quoted a sourc...