US diplomats' summer houses in Moscow close after Putin purge The summer houses of US diplomats in Moscow are closed up after President Putin's decision to purge American diplomatic personnel working in Russia. Access to a US warehouse in an industrial part of Moscow was also blocked, after the Kremlin recently ordered the US to shrink its diplomatic mission in Russia, and the US Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill to toughen sanctions on Russia for allegedly meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and its intervention in Ukraine.