US shutters Russia’s San Francisco consulate in retaliation
The diplomats at the Russian Consulate in San Francisco have been known to bring plates of delicacies and vodka shots to neighborhood block parties and, for the last few years, inflated a big snowman out front at Christmas.
The gestures of goodwill, though, will be sidelined amid escalating tension between the U.S. and Russia. The Trump administration, in a move reminiscent of the Cold War, ordered the shutdown by Saturday of the stately brick building on Green Street in Cow Hollow.
The closure, the latest in a series of tit-for-tat retaliations, carried clear symbolism but will also limit Moscow’s operations in the U.S. and deprive Russians in the Bay Area of the support of consular staff.