01 September, 2017
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the United States has fully complied with Russia's demand to reduce staff at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and at a smaller facility in St. Petersburg.
Anatoly Antonov flew into Washington on Thursday, hours after the State Department's announcement of the closure. "We should act calmly and professionally", Antonov told RIA-Novosti. "Speaking like Lenin, we don't need hysterical impulses", citing a Lenin maxim.
Along with the San Francisco consulate, the installations ordered closed were a chancery annex in Washington, where Moscow has a giant embassy complex, and a consular annex in NY.
Slutsky is quoted by Russian news agencies as saying, "It's a highly unjust step. It means that the U.S.is declaring the hot phase of diplomatic war". Still, Nauert noted in her statement that the USA has "fully implemented" the Russian order, which had set its deadline for Friday.
The closures in the United States will leave consulates open in both countries, Nauert said, but Russian Federation will continue to also have several additional facilities in the United States. The official says Russia will continue to own the buildings that house the Russian posts.
The decision to close the San Francisco consulate was made for a variety of reasons, a senior administration official said, but it "made the most sense" because it's the oldest and most established consulate of the four.
The official briefed reporters on a telephone conference call on condition of anonymity.
It is not clear how numerous US-employed staff losing their jobs will be physically leaving the country, or how many are Russian citizens. That's according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The action follows a Russian order last month to downsize the USA diplomatic presence in Russia. The pair will meet in September in NY.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is among the diplomats that Mr Tillerson has spoken with most often during his term, though the two have frequently exchanged sharp words. A senior USA official said Thursday that the US reduction of diplomatic staff is complete.
After a month of mulling it over, they have chose to close three Russian diplomatic missions in the U.S., a move which the U.S. Department of State calls "parity" even as they admit the response is proportionally much smaller than what Russia did.
The U.S. first responded to the staffing cut by temporarily ending nonimmigrant visa operations in Moscow.
