SAN FRANCISCO — Acrid, black smoke was seen pouring from a chimney at the Russian consulate in San Francisco and workers began hauling boxes out of the stately building in a historic area of the city Friday, a day after the Trump administration ordered its closure amid escalating tensions between the United States and Russia.
The workers were hurrying to shut Russia's oldest consulate in the U.S. ahead of a Saturday deadline.
The order to leave the consulate and an official diplomatic residence in San Francisco — home to a longstanding community of Russian emigres and technology workers — escalated an already tense diplomatic standoff between Washington and Moscow, even for those who have long monitored activities inside the closely monitored building.
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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.
In addition to Consul Sergey Petrov, the consulate's website showed 13 other Russian officials working at the San Francisco post. When approached Friday, Petrov declined to answer questions about the closure or about what was being burned inside.
Sasha Sobol was among the crowd who went to the consulate Friday morning to renew a Russian passport, but was told the document wasn't ready and turned away by early afternoon.
"It's really too bad because now we are going to have to go to Seattle or Houston," said Sobol, a Sunnyvale resident with joint U.S-Russian citizenship.
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