Concerns that outpost was being used for espionage

Acrid, black smoke was seen pouring from a chimney at the Russian consulate in San Francisco and workers began hauling boxes out of the stately building in a historic area of the city on Friday, a day after the Trump administration ordered its closure amid escalating tensions between the United States and Russia.

The workers were hurrying to shut Russia’s oldest consulate in the U.S. ahead of a Saturday deadline.

Last week’s order

The order to leave the consulate and an official diplomatic residence in San Francisco — home to a long-standing community of Russian emigres and technology workers — escalated an already tense diplomatic stand-off between Washington and Moscow. In a statement posted on Facebook, the Russian consulate said the closure would hurt both Russian and American citizens needing its services. The consulate issued more than 16,000 tourist visas to American citizens last year, it said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claims U.S. “special services” intend to search the consulate on Saturday. She says that the U.S. also plans to search apartments in San Francisco used by Russian diplomats and their families. Ms. Zakharova said that involves the families leaving their apartments for 10 to 12 hours so officials can search.

The State Department isn’t commenting specifically on whether officials plan to search the premises. But the State Department said as of Saturday, access to the consulate will only be granted with State Department permission. It had no comment on the black smoke coming from the embassy in San Francisco, which triggered a visit from the San Francisco Fire Department.

Firefighters who arrived at the scene were turned away by consulate officials who came from inside the building. American counterintelligence officials have long kept a watchful eye on the outpost, concerned that people posted to the consulate as diplomats were engaged in espionage.

In addition to Consul Sergey Petrov, the consulate’s website showed 13 other Russian officials working at the San Francisco post. When approached Friday, Mr. Petrov declined to answer questions about the closure or about what was being burned inside.