Russian consulate staff in San Francisco apparently burned something to keep it out of U.S. hands

Black smoke billows from a chimney on top of the Russian consulate on September 1, 2017 in San Francisco, California
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Employees of the Russian consulate in San Francisco used a fireplace to burn unknown items Friday, causing the building to emit black smoke from its chimney.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.