SF consulate closure another obstacle for Russian entrepreneurs
August 31, 2017 Updated: August 31, 2017 4:02pm
Russian entrepreneur Daniel Kravtsov works on his computer late at night at his home in Hayes Valley. He says the closure of the San Francisco consulate will be an inconvenience.
Stuck in the middle of the tit-for-tat closure of the Russian Consulate in San Francisco Thursday are Bay Area entrepreneurs like Daniel Kravtsov, who rely on easy access to a consulate to keep their companies running legally.
Kravtsov, who lives in the U.S. on an O-1 visa, has needed to make two trips to the consulate in the last year alone: once to get some business documents verified.
The Trump administration ordered the Russian Consulate in San Francisco to shut down by Saturday, a few weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the reduction of U.S. personnel in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in response to sanctions passed by Congress and approved by President Trump.