The United States on Thursday ordered the closure of a Russian consulate, describing it as a response to “unwarranted” actions taken by Moscow.

The order will see Russia's San Francisco consulate shuttered and embassy operations scaled back in Washington D.C. and New York by Sept. 2.

"The United States has fully implemented the decision by the government of the Russian Federation to reduce the size of our mission in Russia," the U.S. Department of State announcement says. "We believe this action was unwarranted and detrimental to the overall relation between our countries."

U.S. implemented unwarranted #Russia decision 2 reduce mission size & we require action by them to achieve their desire 4 parity @statedept pic.twitter.com/0wgGC7m5kX — Heather Nauert (@statedeptspox) August 31, 2017

The move follows a Russian Foreign Ministry order for the U.S. to scale back the number of diplomatic staff in Russia to 455.

By Friday, Sept.1, around 700 staff working for the U.S. diplomatic mission to Russia will be dismissed.

"In the spirit of parity invoked by the Russians, we are requiring the Russian Government to close its Consulate General in San Francisco, a chancery annex in Washington D.C., and a consular annex in New York," the U.S. State Department's statement said. It added the move would allow both countries to keep three consulates, adding: "while there will continue to be a disparity in the number of diplomatic and consular annexes we have chosen to allow the Russian Government to maintain some of its annexes in an effort to arrest the downward spiral in our relationship." Besides the embassy in Washington D.C., Russia has four consulates in the United States; in Seattle, San Francisco, Houston and New York.

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