Where There’s Smoke, There’s a Conspiracy Theory at a Russian Consulate - Source NY Times

Acrid black smoke was seen pouring from a chimney at the Russian Consulate in San Francisco on Friday, Sept 1, 2017

Amid rare extreme heat in San Francisco, it was unusual to see black smoke billowing from a chimney on Friday — not to mention that it was coming from the Russian Consulate, the day after the Trump administration ordered it closed.

Neighbors gathered on the sidewalks to gawk; the Fire Department came to investigate; local environmental officials sent an inspector. This being California, there were concerns about pollution.

But a darker conspiracy theory was also in the air: that the Russians were burning documents ahead of what a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman in Moscow described as a search of the building scheduled for Saturday by American security services.
“Maybe they are shredding first and burning what they shred,” said one woman standing on the tree-lined sidewalk outside the consulate on Friday afternoon, identifying herself only by her first name, Marion. “I don’t care what they do as long as fire doesn’t start coming out the windows.”

The consulate, a six-story brick building in the wealthy enclave of Pacific Heights, has sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay. A picture of the consul, Sergey V. Petrov, that was posted on the website of the consulate shows him sitting next to an elegant fireplace. Arriving at the consulate on Friday, neither Mr. Petrov nor a man accompanying him would comment when asked what was burning inside.

The smoke was first spotted around noon on Friday. Neighbors called the Fire Department.
“We responded as if it were a fire,” said a Fire Department spokeswoman, Mindy Talmadge. “When we got to the consulate, we confirmed that it was coming from the chimney.”

With a layer of smoke haze covering the bay from wildfires in Northern California, Friday had been declared a “Spare the Air Day,” when residents are urged to cut back on activities that cause pollution. As images of the consulate smoke circulated on social media, the Bay Area Air District tweeted that it was taking action.

“I have no idea what they are burning,” said Lisa Fasano, a spokeswoman for the air district, which enforces and regulates air quality in the nine-county region. “But we are having poor air quality out here right now. We need to do everything we can to protect our air.”

Ms. Fasano said the inspector patrolled the neighborhood and took pictures. But he reported that there was “no more visible smoke,” Ms. Fasano said. She said fines for “visible emissions” from burning start at $5,000.

The State Department demanded that Moscow shutter its consulate in San Francisco in the latest in tit-for-tat moves that began late last year, when the Obama administration seized two Russian diplomatic properties, in New York and Maryland, to punish Moscow for its meddling in the 2016 American presidential election.

Stung by the Trump administration’s refusal to give back the waterfront compounds, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in July seized two American properties in Russia, and demanded that the United States diplomatic mission in his country cut its personnel numbers by 755 — the vast majority of them Russian.

Mr. Putin’s action came the day after the United States Senate approved broad economic sanctions against Russia, and curtailed President Trump’s power to roll them back.

The State Department is now requiring Russia to leave both the consulate and the consul’s official residence in San Francisco by Saturday. Russian officials must receive permission from the State Department to enter either building, and only for vital activities to protect and maintain them.

“Russia will no longer be permitted to use these facilities for diplomatic, consular, or residential purposes,” a State Department official said on Friday.

Closing the Russian diplomatic mission nearest Silicon Valley was widely believed to penalize Moscow’s nefarious cyberactivities.

Diane Foug, a longtime resident who was unloading construction materials into her house across the street from the consulate on Friday, described the Russians as good neighbors.

“When we had block parties, they always came out with fabulous spreads of blintzes and vodka shots,” she said. “I’m sorry to see them go, but in the big picture, I understand.”