| former Consulate of Russia in San Francisco | |
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| Location | San Francisco |
| Coordinates | 37°47′42″N122°26′42″W / 37.7951°N 122.4450°W |
The Consulate-General of Russia in San Francisco was a diplomatic mission in the 2790 Green Street building in Pacific Heights, San Francisco. It was operated by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. [1] The building of the former consulate remains government property of Russia. [2] [3]
The first Russian consul in San Francisco was Peter Kostromitinov. He was an agent of the Russian-American Company and the manager at Fort Ross. He took his post in 1852. The first consulate of the Soviet Union in San Francisco opened in 1933. During the World War II U.S.-Soviet Alliance Jacob M. Lomakin was Consul General (1942-1944). He was active in the Lend-Lease program and at meetings for raising funds to aid the Red Army. [4] These meetings were funded by numerous anti-fascist organizations, among them the International Committee of the Red Cross, American-Russian Institute and Russian War Relief. Together with progressive cultural figures, military, and governmental officials of the United States, Lomakin advocated the opening of the Second Front. [5] [6] [7] The building at 2563 Divisadero Street held the consulate until 1948, when with the onset of the Cold War the Government of the USSR closed its consulates in New York and San Francisco, meaning the reciprocal closing of the US consulates in Leningrad and Vladivostok. [8] [9] Consular relations between the USSR and the US were restored only after 24 years in 1972 and the Consulate of the USSR was at 24 California Street and the James Flood Building. On June 23, 1973, it moved into its current location. [10]
In 2011 the consulate bought new headstones, for a total of $20,000, for Russian sailors who died fighting a fire in San Francisco in 1863. The graves were installed on Mare Island in Vallejo, California. The city government protested the plan, saying that it goes against historical preservation. [11]
In December 2016, four Russian diplomats posted to the consulate, including a chef were declared persona non grata due to alleged espionage, in retaliation for Russian interference in the United States presidential election. [12] [13]
On 31 August 2017, the State Department ordered the post closed by September 2, 2017. [14] [15] Before the consulate was closed, smoke was seen billowing out of the building, suggesting sensitive materials were being destroyed. [16] [17] [18]
Members of the United States intelligence community, including Kathleen Puckett, considered the Russian consulate a major hub of Russian espionage operations, tasked with gaining information about developments from Silicon Valley. [18] In 1984, a United States government report indicated that there may have been approximately 50 Soviet spies operating out of the San Francisco Consulate, primarily targeting Silicon Valley. [19]
In 1987, Ivan N. Miroshkin of the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reported that the consulate had been bugged. [18] [20]
Russian diplomats based out of the consulate were reportedly mapping where underground nodes connected to the national fiber-optic communication network. [18] [21]
A network of antennas and other electronic communication equipment is located on the roof of the consulate building and is allegedly used to transmit information to submarines or trawlers located off the Pacific coast in international waters. [18]
In diplomacy, a persona non grata is a status sometimes applied by a host country to foreign diplomats to remove their protection by diplomatic immunity from arrest and other normal kinds of prosecution.
Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin was a Russian diplomat and former child actor. Churkin served as Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2006 until his death in 2017.
The Embassy of Russia in Washington, D.C. is the diplomatic mission of the Russian Federation to the United States. The chancery is located at 2650 Wisconsin Avenue, Northwest, Washington, D.C. The embassy oversees consulates in New York and Houston.
Greece–Russia relations refers to the bilateral relationship between Greece and Russia and their predecessor states. Diplomatic relations between the Russian Empire and the Greek state were established in September 1828. Both Greece and Russia are full members of some international organizations, including the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. Despite Greece being member of NATO and the European Union, their relationship has been notably strong.
The Russian Federation and the Kingdom of Spain, a member state of the European Union, have bilateral foreign relations. Spain and the Grand Duchy of Moscow first exchanged envoys in 1520s; regular embassies were established in 1722. Soviet-Spanish relations, once terminated after the Spanish Civil War, were gradually reestablished starting in 1963 and were fully established by 1977. Trade between the two countries amounted to two billion Euros in 2008. In March 2009, the two countries signed an energy agreement providing national energy companies access to other party's domestic markets.
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The Embassy of the United States of America in Moscow is the diplomatic mission of the United States of America in the Russian Federation. The current embassy compound is in the Presnensky District of Moscow. Its New Office Building (NOB) address is: Bolshoy Deviatinsky Pereulok No. 8. The NOB was opened on May 5, 2000. From 1934 to 1953 the embassy was located in the Mokhovaya House, 13 Mokhovaya Street, near the Kremlin. In 1953 the embassy moved into the Existing Office Building (EOB) on Novinskiy Boulevard, which still remains a part of the embassy compound.
Sergey Ivanovich Kislyak is a Russian senior diplomat and politician. Since September 2017, he has represented Mordovia in the Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian legislature. Previously he served as the Ambassador of Russia to the United States from 2008 to 2017. From 2003 to 2008, he was the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and from 1998 to 2003, he served as the Ambassador of Russia to Belgium and Russia's Head of Mission to NATO.
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The Consulate-General of Russia in New York City is the diplomatic mission of the Russian Federation in New York City. Opened in 1994, the consulate is located at 9 East 91st Street in the former John Henry Hammond House in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. A consulate of the former Soviet Union had previously existed on East 61st Street from 1933 until 1948.
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Jacob Mironovich Lomakin was a Soviet diplomat, journalist and economist.
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The State Department didn't immediately identify the diplomats being expelled or say how many were working in San Francisco. All 35, department officials said, "were acting in a manner inconsistent with their diplomatic status," which is political-speak for spying.
Petrov confirmed that four of the 35 diplomats asked to leave the country work at the San Francisco consulate. Family members of those employees are also leaving [...] Petrov says the consulate's chef is included in the expulsion.
Acrid, black smoke has been seen pouring from a chimney at the Russian consulate in San Francisco a day after the Trump administration ordered its closure on 2-day notice due to espionage and amid escalating tensions between the United States and Russia. The building was seized by the FBI and the consulate closed but residents in the building were allowed to stay until October 1, 2017. The building has a large number of apartments occupied by Russian employees. The Russian flag is still flying on top of the building as of September 24th. 2017.
In recent years there have been frequent reports that 50 or more spies report to the San Francisco consulate general. Experts on electronic warfare say the consulate is the collection base for extensive electronic surveillance gear operated by spies at work in California, especially in the high-technology Silicon Valley south of San Francisco.
Another official, Ivan N. Miroshkin of the Foreign Ministry's Security Service, said some of the bugging devices had been found at the new Soviet compound in Washington in the last few days, and others had been collected earlier at the consulate in San Francisco, in apartments of Soviet employees of the United Nations, in the trade mission in Washington, and in a country house outside Washington. [...] He said security officers had discovered a tunnel with listening devices under the San Francisco consulate.
The diplomats, widely assumed to be intelligence operatives, would eventually turn up in odd places, often in middle-of-nowhere USA. One was found on a beach, nowhere near where he was supposed to be. In one particularly bizarre case, relayed by a U.S. intelligence official, another turned up wandering around in the middle of the desert. Interestingly, both seemed to be lingering where underground fiber-optic cables tend to run.
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