WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration has informed Congress that it plans to shut down the last two remaining US consulates in Russia.
The State Department told lawmakers last week that it would permanently close the consulate in the Russian city of Vladivostok in the far east and temporarily suspend operations at the consulate in Yekaterinburg, just east of the Ural Mountains.
The notice was sent to Congress on December 10, but received little attention at the time. That timing dates back to three days before the public release of news of a major suspected Russian computer breach into the US government and private computer systems, which has sparked serious cybersecurity fears.
The department’s notice to Congress, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, said the closures are due to limits set by Russian authorities in 2017 on the number of U.S. diplomats allowed to work in the country.
The measures are “in response to the US mission’s ongoing personnel problems in Russia in the wake of the 2017 US mission personnel cap imposed by Russia and the resulting deadlock with Russia over diplomatic visas,” he said.
After the closures, the only diplomatic facility the US will have in Russia is the embassy in Moscow. Russia ordered the closure of the US consulate in St. Petersburg in 2018 after the US ordered the Russian consulate in Seattle to close actions over the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in Britain.
The consulate in Vladivostok was temporarily closed in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, and staff there had already started removing sensitive equipment, documents and other items. The consulates in Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg employ a total of 10 American diplomats and 33 local employees.
The exact timing of the closings has yet to be determined. The American personnel will be transferred to the embassy in Moscow, while the local population will be fired, according to the notification. The department estimated that the permanent closure of the Vladivostok consulate would save $ 3.2 million a year.
The closures leave the US without diplomatic representation in much of Russia – all over east of Moscow – and are a major inconvenience to American travelers in far east Russia, as well as Russians in the region seeking visas to enter the United States States to come. as all consular services are handled from the embassy in Moscow.