Where there’s smoke there’s documents?
Where there’s smoke there’s documents?
Observers spotted black plumes rising from Russia’s consulate in San Francisco as the country prepares for U. S. investigators to search it when its diplomats leave.
President Trump and the State Department ordered Moscow to shutter its West Coast facility by September 2, the latest escalation in a back-and-forth between the U. S. and its former Cold War foe.
The U. S. also ordered the Russian Foreign Ministry to close annexes at its New York and Washington D. C. outposts, a retaliation for the Kremlin curbing staff numbers at the American Embassy in Moscow.
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It was not immediately clear what was fueling the fire at the consulate on Friday.
Firefighters who were called to a report of the blaze arrived at the building, on Russian territory, but were not allowed to enter.
An Associated Press reporter heard unidentified people from the building say that staff were burning items in a fireplace.
Temperatures in the Bay Area on Friday reached into the upper 90s, according to the National Weather Service.
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The beginning of fall bonfire comes as Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the FBI plans on searching the building on Saturday, as well as the apartments of its employees.
She said in a statement Friday that the U. S. was showing it is « not interested in developing ties between people » and preventing Americans from receiving Russian visas.
Russia’s moves against U. S. diplomats earlier this summer came as the long-awaited response to the Obama administration seizing diplomatic compounds and kicking some Moscow employees out of the country.
Obama, who made the moves for alleged election meddling in favor of President Trump, said that those employees were spies and that the now-closed facilities were used for spying.
