Global Geo-political Series: Russia-US in diplomatic war as Trump administration close Russian embassy in San Francisco

The tit for tat diplomatic war on diplomatic staff between the United States and Russia continues that began with President Obama expelling 35 Russian diplomats from the country and seizing two Russian diplomatic compounds in the aftermath of 2016 election for Russia’s alleged meddling in the US election. Just days before New Year, on December 29th, Barrack Obama announced expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats giving them 72 hours to leave the country affecting 96 Russian nationals including families of the diplomats.

At that time, Russia resisted any retaliatory measures as President Putin decided to provide the new administration with some breathing space and to understand how the new administration under Donald Trump would pursue relations, especially since he expressed a desire to improve US- Russia relation.

On July 25th, 2017, despite opposition from President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, U.S. Congress chose to impose new sanctions on Russia and curb president’s ability to unilaterally remove sanctions on Russia without the approval from Congress.

Finally, on July 28th, Russia responded to the provocation by expelling as many as 755 diplomats from the country with a deadline for leaving 1st September and brought down the numbers of US diplomatic staffs working in Russia in line with the Russians working in the United States. Moscow also seized two diplomatic compounds.

In response, on August 21st, the US embassy in Russia announced it was suspending all "nonimmigrant visa operations" in Russia as of August 23. Visa operations would resume in September, but only at the main embassy building in Moscow. Russians would no longer be able to apply for visas at US consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok.

On August 31st, Trump administration cited “the spirit of parity invoked by the Russians” to order the closure of Russia’s consulate in San Francisco, California and two diplomatic annexes in Washington, DC and New York City, on August 31. While the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov expressed regrets over the decision made by the United States, the US state department announced that more measures could be taken in future.

It is far from clear that how long this diplomatic war would continue between the two most powerful countries in the world. Some analysts suggest that these moves are more of show offs on the surface, while relations are improving underneath.