The Consulate General of Russia in San Francisco
The service section of the Consulate General of Russia in San Francisco controlled by the US authorities and cordoned off by police. On Sunday, September 3, reported RIA Novosti Consul General Sergey Petrov.
He said that in the domestic premises continue to live the consular officers. According to him, they were allowed to remain there until his departure, while they put the deadline on the first of October. “In fact, we were evicted from their apartment, and the us admits,” the diplomat said, adding that “what is happening is beyond the scope of the international legal and just legal norms.”
Petrov said that now the employees of the Consulate will close all current administrative Affairs.
The Consul General advised Russian citizens “not to worry, and if there’s nothing urgent, to wait a month or two until the situation is clarified”. He said that all documents related to consular work will be moved to the Consulate in Seattle.
Previously the foreign Ministry have posted on social networks a video inspection by the FBI of a building of Consulate General of Russia in San Francisco. Searches there and in the trade mission started in Washington on the evening of 2 September.
August 31, the US authorities have demanded from Russia to close these diplomatic facilities in the period until 2 September. The decision of the White house was, as they explained, second step in the reduction of the U.S. diplomatic corps in Russia.
Later, it was reported that several Russian diplomats asked for political asylum in the United States. This was announced by foreign Ministry spokesman, Maria Zakharova, who called the news lies and “classic information warfare”.