Australia Court Rejects Russia Bid To Keep Embassy Site Near Parliament That Posed 'Security Risk'

Citing national security concerns, Australian govt on June 15 cancelled Russia's lease for the land located just 400 m from the parliament building. Moscow was building its new embassy at the site.

The Australian flag is seen on the Parliament House building behind an under construction structure on the grounds of a proposed new Russian embassy in Canberra.

Source : Getty

The top court of Australia has rejected Russia's bid to temporarily hold on to a plot of land in capital Canberra where Moscow planned to build its new embassy, BBC reported. The Yarralumla site is located just 400 metres from where the country’s parliament stands. Citing national security concerns, the government earlier this month cancelled Russia's lease for the land, which it had purchased in 2008. Russia challenged the decision in court, which dismissed it calling the challenge “weak” and “hard to understand”.

Quoting experts, the BBC report said the planned embassy building posed a spying risk.

The Russian embassy currently is located some distance away from the Australian parliament building in Canberra. Moscow sought to build a new embassy at the new site, and was granted approval for it in 2011, the BBC report said.

On June 15, Australia's parliament brought new laws that aimed “specifically at terminating the lease”, according to the report. Introducing the new laws, as quoted in the report, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there was "very clear security advice” from intelligence agencies “as to the risk posed by a new Russian presence so close to Parliament House".

Reacting to the decision, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said it was an example of "Russophobic hysteria” prevailing in the West.

Russian Squatter Leaves After Court Ruling 

Russia had started construction work at the site, spreading US$5.5 million already, and the embassy building currently stands partially completed, according to a report in The Guardian. 

After the June 15 government order, a lone Russian diplomat had remained at the site, squatting in protest against the decision, the report said, adding that the police had been keeping a watch on the man but could not arrest him because he enjoyed diplomatic immunity.

The man was seen leaving the site in an embassy car after the court ruling Monday.

A Russian diplomat leaves a plot of Canberra land whose lease has been cancelled | Photo: Getty

While Russia had launched an injunction last week to hold on to the Canberra site, on Monday morning it moved an urgent application to temporarily prevent Australia from entering the site where the partially completed building stands while the court heard the main constitutional challenge against the June 15 legislation, the Guardian report said.

Moscow told the court that the integrity of the embassy building would be compromised if Australia was allowed inside.

The Australia High Court, however, ruled that Russia had to vacate the site, as it called the challenge to the decision "weak" and "hard to understand".

"There is no proper foundation for the interlocutory injunction as sought by [Russia]," Justice Jayne Jagot was quoted as saying in the BBC report. "The Commonwealth has a clear sovereign interest that the land not be occupied by [Russia]."

Albanese said last week he was not worried about the legal challenge from Russia.

"We don't expect Russia is in a position to talk about international law given their rejection of it so consistently and so brazenly with their invasion of Ukraine," BBC quoted him as saying.