Trump orders consular offices closed
WASHINGTON — Responding to a Russian government demand to drastically slash American diplomatic staff in Russia, the Trump administration on Thursday ordered Moscow to close three of its consular offices in the United States.
Russia will be required to close its consulate general in San Francisco, the chancery annex in Washington and the consular annex in New York, the State Department announced. The deadline is Saturday.
A senior administration official would not say how many Russian staffers were affected but noted they will not be required to leave the country. The official also did not say if the Russian missions employ any Americans.
The move was the latest tit-for-tat action in worsening relations between Washington and Moscow, despite President Donald Trump’s expressions of friendliness toward President Vladimir Putin.
Angered over a package of congressionally mandated economic sanctions, Russia had ordered the U.S. to cut its staff in Russia by around two-thirds, to 455. The administration official would not give an exact figure of how many staffers left Russia, or say how many of those cut were
Americans, who will be transferred, or Russians, who will most likely be fired.
Trump did not comment immediately on the punitive actions. He previously said he should “thank” Putin for helping to trim the federal payroll. He later insisted he was being sarcastic.
As a result of the week’s actions, both nations will have a similar diplomatic footprint — each with an embassy and three consulates — what the Russians had called “parity.” The Russian government will have a few additional “annexes” that it will be allowed to continue to operate.
The two annexes that were ordered closed housed trade missions. The consulate general in San Francisco, a grand, butterscotch-colored
building in the city’s elegant Pacific Heights neighborhood, was the “oldest and most established” of Russian diplomatic missions in the U.S., part of the reason it was chosen, the official said. The official briefed reporters on condition of anonymity in keeping with administration practice.
Russia also operates consulates in Seattle, Houston and New York.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson telephoned his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov earlier Thursday to notify him that the U.S. staff had met Russia’s Friday deadline for downsizing and to inform him of the new U.S.-mandated closures.
Despite the tensions, the two agreed to meet again in September at the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The drastic cut in its staff
in Moscow, as well as in St. Petersburg, Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg, forced the United States to suspend most visa issuing and related consular affairs.
The State Department labeled the order “unwarranted and detrimental to the overall relationship between our countries.”
“The United States hopes that, having moved toward the Russian Federation’s desire for parity, we can avoid further retaliatory actions by both sides and move forward to achieve the stated goal of both of our presidents: improved relations between our two countries and increased cooperation on areas of mutual concern,” the State Department said.
That may not be likely any time soon. Putin will probably feel the need to retaliate again.