Grounds of the Russian Embassy
A diplomat occupies a property – fueling a dispute between Australia and Russia
A fence surrounds an apparently uninhabited building on the site of a proposed new Russian embassy near Australia’s parliament. A suspected lonely Russian diplomat was apparently spotted at the site of the proposed embassy, which the Australian government has vetoed.
© Rod McGuirk/AP/DPA
Russia wanted to build a new embassy in the Australian capital. Australia has banned this for security reasons. Russia is now going to court. But the focus is on an occupier of the abandoned embassy premises.
A man in a dark jacket and jeans smokes a cigarette on a building site – and is making headlines in Australia these days. Because he is not just any man who just innocently smokes a cigarette there. He is said to be a Russian diplomat who is staying on a property that was supposed to be the new Russian embassy.
The emphasis is on actually. Because the Australian government has prevented the construction of the new diplomatic facility. This should be in the immediate vicinity of the parliament in the capital Canberra. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor government banned this last week for reasons of “national security”.
Law rushed through parliaments
“The government has received very clear security advice on the risks that a new Russian presence so close to the parliament building would have posed,” Albanese said at a press conference. With the support of the opposition, his government brought the legal basis for the decision through both chambers of parliament in an expedited procedure – the whole thing took less than two hours.
From a legal point of view, the law prohibits the construction of any diplomatic missions on the property – regardless of the country. But it is obvious that the law is directed against Russia.
The background is a court decision made a few weeks ago. This prohibited the Australian government’s planning authority from withdrawing Russia’s right to use the leased site in Canberra’s embassy district. With reference to national security interests, this judgment has now been overturned. The current Russian embassy in the Griffith suburb will remain unaffected, as will the Australian mission in Moscow, Albanese said.
The land squatter lives in this small living container
© Yoann CAMBEFORT / AFP
Media speak of the “squatter fight”
The planning authority approved the leasing of the property in December 2008, and the building permits were granted in 2011 – the new embassy building was never completed, however. In August 2022, the Australian government had attempted to terminate the lease for failure to comply with certain clauses in the building permit. However, this was ruled invalid by a court in May. According to the Australian Ministry of the Interior, no decision has yet been made on the future use of the site.
However, there is still one problem: the occupier of the property. TV crews and photographers were able to capture him on camera. He seems to have moved into a white container on the former embassy site and has been living there for a few days. “Squatter stoush” is what Channel 9 called the situation – “squatter fight”.
A photo of the suspected Russian diplomat at the said compound
© Yoann CAMBEFORT / AFP
But there can be no talk of a real fight. The man is being watched by the Australian federal police and the site no longer formally belongs to the embassy. However, since he is suspected of being a diplomat – even if he is apparently not on the official list of Russian representatives in Australia – he enjoys corresponding immunity, which prevents arrest. If he were declared persona non grata, deportation to Russia would be possible.
MP: The plot “is not Ukraine”
However, Prime Minister Albanese sees no danger in the diplomat and his occupation of the country. “A guy standing on a patch of grass in Canberra in the cold is not a threat to our national security,” he said. The site is secured. “Procedures for formal Commonwealth possession of the site are underway.”
The opposition sees it differently. Liberal Party Senator Simon Birmingham took a sharper tone. The government should “not accept such a blatant breach of the law”. “Mr Albanese appeared to think it was a matter of humor or ridicule, which is not the case.”
Rep. Keith Pitt said in one TV interview told the Russian diplomat that Australia “is not Ukraine” and that he “can’t just occupy and claim land”.
Russia is taking Australia to court and responding with sanctions
The dispute between Moscow and Canberra is also likely to continue legally: the Russian Embassy has appealed to the Supreme Court in Australia and sued against the termination of the lease, as reported by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti.
Moscow sees the termination of the lease as an “obviously politicized and unfriendly move” aimed at “further damaging bilateral relations, which are at an all-time low thanks to the efforts of official Canberra.”
In the court documents from which the broadcaster ABC quoted above, the Russian side is demanding that the Australian authorities and their employees be banned from entering the site and from sub-letting, claiming that more than eight million dollars have already been spent on the construction work.
The Australian government reacted calmly to the lawsuit, as it did to the squatter. It was “no surprise,” said a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry. “Russia’s challenge to the validity of the law is not unexpected. It’s part of the Russian script.”
On Friday, another “like you do me, like me you” step from Moscow followed: the foreign ministry there imposed entry bans on several Australian businessmen, politicians and journalists, like ABC News reported.
Sources: News agencies DPA, AFP and Ria Novosti, channel 9, ABC, SBS, Sky News Australia