This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/31/us-russia-san-francisco-consulate-close
The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| US orders Russia to close consulate and annexes in diplomatic reprisal | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The US has ordered Russia to close diplomatic offices in San Francisco, New York and Washington within the next two days in the latest round of punitive measures between the two countries that began at the end of last year. | |
| Heather Nauert, a state department spokeswoman, said that the US has fully carried out Moscow’s demands to cut its staff at the US mission in Russia from 1,200 to 455 to make it the same size as the Russian mission in the US. The deadline for the staff reduction was 1 September. But Nauert also announced that the US was striking back for what she said was an “unwarranted and detrimental” move by the Kremlin. | |
| “In the spirit of parity invoked by the Russians, we are requiring the Russian Government to close its Consulate General in San Francisco, a chancery annex in Washington, D.C., and a consular annex in New York City. These closures will need to be accomplished by September 2,” she said in a statement. “With this action both countries will remain with three consulates each. While there will continue to be a disparity in the number of diplomatic and consular annexes, we have chosen to allow the Russian Government to maintain some of its annexes in an effort to arrest the downward spiral in our relationship.” | |
| In the statement, Naert said the US hoped 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”. | |
| Dmitry Trenin, the director of the Moscow office of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, predicted that the mutual expulsions “won’t stop there”. | |
| Trenin said on Twitter that a “new round of US-Russian diplomatic conflict [is] in the offing”. | |
| The prolonged spat began last year with growing alarm in the Obama administration both about the harassment of US diplomats in Russia and concerns Moscow interfered in the US presidential election. On 30 December, in his last few weeks in office, Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats and locked the Russians out of two diplomatic compounds in Maryland and New York. | |
| Putin delayed a response, apparently in the expectation that the incoming Trump administration would reverse the decision. However, Trump’s efforts to lift sanctions and explore the return of the compounds was foiled by Congress and the state department. Putin responded at the end of last month by ordering the seizure of two US diplomatic properties and ordering the deep cuts in embassy staff. Most of those who lost their jobs were Russian nationals, and the cuts led to a suspension of non-immigrant visas to the US being issued in Russia. | |
| The retaliatory move by the state department comes at a time of remarkable dissonance between Donald Trump and his secretaries of state and defence, who have both taken a much tougher line on Russia. Trump has refused to be drawn into any criticism of the Kremlin, and even welcomed Putin’s announcement of cuts to the US embassy, saying it would save his administration money. |