A curious case of fire
San Francisco post, 2 others close today
An official at the Russian Consulate in San Francisco tells firefighters there is no problem Friday as black smoke poured from the roof. Despite a rare high of 104 for the city, “they had a fire going in their fireplace,” a fire official said later. Russia is weighing its response to the White House order Thursday to close the consulate and offices in Washington and New York.
MOSCOW — Russia accused the United States on Friday of a “gross violation of international law” after President Donald Trump’s administration gave Moscow two days to shutter diplomatic outposts in San Francisco and other American cities.
As Russian diplomats rushed to meet today’s deadline, black smoke was seen billowing out of the chimney at the San Francisco consulate, one of three Russian facilities being forcibly closed. Firefighters, who were turned away by Russian officials when they responded to the scene, said the Russians were burning something in the fireplace.
Mindy Talmadge, a spokesman for the San Francisco Fire Department, said she did not know what was being burned inside the building on a day when San Francisco temperatures climbed to 104 degrees, a record high, according to the National Weather Service.
“It was not unintentional. They were burning something in their fireplace,” she said.
In Moscow, the Russian government claimed that U.S. officials were planning to search both the consulate and apartments used by their diplomats today, though there were no indications from the U.S. suggesting that was the case. The State Department said it planned to “secure and maintain” the properties and that Russia wouldn’t be allowed to use them for “diplomatic, consular, or residential purposes” any longer.
In a statement, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Maria Zakharova said of the diplomatic closures, “This step is a gross violation of international law, including the United States’ commitments on the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic and Consular Relations.
Still, the Kremlin appeared to be wrestling with how forcefully to react to the U.S. order, the latest in a series of escalating retaliatory measures between the former Cold War foes. President Vladimir Putin’s foreign-policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Russia needs to “think carefully about how we could respond.”
“One does not want to go into a frenzy, because someone has to be reasonable and stop,” Ushakov said.
The diplomatic machinations came the day after the Trump administration ordered closed Russia’s San Francisco consulate and trade missions in New York and Washington. The Russian Embassy in Washington is not affected, nor are three other Russian consulates in the U.S., including in New York.
The Trump administration said the order was retaliation for the Kremlin’s “unwarranted and detrimental” demand last month that the U.S. substantially reduce the size of its diplomatic staff in Russia. But Russia, for its part, justified its call for cuts to U.S. embassy and consular personnel as a reaction to new sanctions the U.S. Congress approved in July.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that Moscow would reply with firmness to the forced closure of the diplomatic posts, but needed time to study Washington’s directive and to decide on a response.
“We will have a tough response to the things that come totally out of the blue to hurt us and are driven solely by the desire to spoil our relations with the United States,” Lavrov said in a televised meeting with students at Russia’s top diplomacy school.
Despite Russia’s claim the U.S. is violating international law, the Trump administration has defended the closures by citing the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The U.S. has said the 1960s-era pact gives host countries the right to consent to foreign countries establishing consular posts — or not.
American counterintelligence officials have long kept a watchful eye on Russia’s outpost in San Francisco, concerned that people posted to the consulate as diplomats were engaged in espionage. The U.S. late last year kicked out several Russians posted there, calling it a response to election interference.
President Barack Obama in December kicked out dozens of Russian officials and closed two Russian recreational compounds. Putin withheld from retaliating. The next month, Trump took office after campaigning on promises to improve U.S.-Russia ties.
But last month, Trump signed into law stepped-up sanctions on Russia that Congress pushed to prevent him from easing up on Moscow. The Kremlin retaliated by telling the U.S. to cut its embassy and consulate staff down to 455 personnel, from a level hundreds higher.
The U.S. never confirmed how many diplomatic staff members it had in the country at the time. As of Thursday, the U.S. has complied with the order to reduce its staff to 455, officials said.
American officials argued that Russia had no cause for retribution now, noting that Moscow’s ordering of U.S. diplomatic cuts last month was premised on bringing the two countries’ diplomatic presences into “parity.”
Both countries now maintain three consulates in each other’s territory and similar numbers of diplomats. Exact numbers are difficult to independently verify.
The reductions are having consequences for Russia. The U.S. last month temporarily suspended nonimmigrant-visa processing for Russians seeking to visit the United States and resumed it Friday at a “much-reduced rate.” The U.S. will process visas only at the embassy in Moscow, meaning Russians can no longer apply at U.S. consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok.
Even before the cuts at the U.S. mission in Russia were announced, the typical waiting time for visa applicants to be interviewed was longer than a month.
Nadezhda Sianule planned to attend her daughter’s wedding in the United States in mid-September and got an appointment in July to be interviewed Thursday. Now those plans are in disarray.
“I came yesterday and they said that I’m not on the list. They said that the old lists have been canceled,” Sianule said Friday morning outside the U.S. Embassy.
Despite the exchange of reprisals, there have been narrow signs of U.S.-Russian cooperation that have transcended the worsening ties. In July, Trump and Putin signed off on a deal with Jordan for a cease-fire in southwest Syria. The U.S. says the truce largely has held.