. >> the honorable sergey petrov is consul general of the russian federation in san francisco.he and the other consuls general are professional diplomats whose duties include overseeing the processing of legal documents, such as passports, here and around the world. but their primary mission is to build good relations bween their countries and the united states. >> we should bring together our businesses, our artists, our actors, our scientists, our students. that's important. >> it's a challenging time for diplomats. the u.s. justice department recently indicted two russian intelligence agents and two hackers accused of stealing private information from millions of americans after hacking into yahoo! accounts. >> it would be pure speculation. these people are innocent people now. they're innocent now until they are proven guilty in the court of law. >> also, some consulate employees were among three dozen russians nationwide who were suddenly expelled at the end of 2016. the obama administration said it was in retaliation for russian efforts to interfere with the u.s. presiden