Strange message looping

[Eugene Crosser <crosser@online.ru>]

I noticed a strange behavior.  We have a friendly domain which has my
mail host as one of MXes:

kommersant.com  preference = 10, mail exchanger = smtp.kommersant.com
kommersant.com  preference = 20, mail exchanger = koi.smtp.online.ru

koi.smtp.online.ru is one of the 'alias' IP interfaces opened on
deimos.sovam.com.  This name *is* mentioned in the 'localnames' database
(and yes, it it sorted alphabetically).  Although, I am getting messages
like the one below (probably when the primary MX is unreachable):

=====
The following message was decided to exceed the sensible limit
on the number of "Received:" headers, which number is usually
fairly small for any average email, but can become rather large,
if the message loops somewhere.

Our limit is 50 rounds, usually systems set it way lower, like
at 15-17...


The entire original message file follows.

-----------------------------------------
external
rcvdfrom deimos ([194.67.1.1])
bodytype 8BITMIME
with ESMTP
identinfo SOCKFAULT1@koi.smtp.online.ru (port 34009)
from <agency@finmarket.ru>
todsn ORCPT=rfc822;fm@kommersant.com
to <fm@kommersant.com>
env-end
Received: from deimos ([194.67.1.1]) by deimos.sovam.com with ESMTP id
<227627-5444>; Tue, 10 Dec 1996 19:00:06 +0300
Received: from deimos ([194.67.1.1]) by deimos.sovam.com with ESMTP id
<227628-5445>; Tue, 10 Dec 1996 18:59:39 +0300
Received: from deimos ([194.67.1.1]) by deimos.sovam.com with ESMTP id
<227597-5444>; Tue, 10 Dec 1996 18:59:35 +0300
Received: from deimos ([194.67.1.1]) by deimos.sovam.com with ESMTP id
<227618-5443>; Tue, 10 Dec 1996 18:59:20 +0300
Received: from deimos ([194.67.1.1]) by deimos.sovam.com with ESMTP id
<227597-5445>; Tue, 10 Dec 1996 18:59:03 +0300
Received: from deimos ([194.67.1.1]) by deimos.sovam.com with ESMTP id
<227618-5438>; Tue, 10 Dec 1996 18:58:20 +0300

etc...

Any clues?

Eugene