A suspected lone Russian diplomat is reportedly squatting on the site where Moscow wanted to build a new embassy in Canberra before Australia blocked the plan. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dismissed the Russian act of defiance in occupying the site in the capital, saying a “bloke standing in the cold on a bit of grass in Canberra is not a threat to our national security”.
Mr Albanese said he was sure that the eviction would stand up to any Russian legal challenge.
A man has been living in a portable building on the site since Sunday (June 18), when passers-by first saw Australian Federal Police outside the fenced block in the Yarralumla diplomatic precinct.
The Russian Embassy refused to comment on media reports that the man seen smoking cigarettes outside his accommodation was a Russian diplomat.
The embassy also declined to explain why the man was on the site, saying in an email: “The Embassy does not comment (on) this.”
Last week, Parliament passed emergency legislation blocking on security grounds Russia’s lease on the largely empty block because the new embassy would have been too close to Parliament House.
Mr Albanese said the issue would be “resolved” but did not divulge more details.
He told reporters in a courtyard outside his Parliament House office: “Australia will stand up for our values and we will stand up for our national security and a bloke standing in the cold on a bit of grass in Canberra is not a threat to our national security,”
Australian National University international law expert Don Rothwell said occupying the site gave Russia no advantage in any legal challenge to their eviction.
He said: “What they’re doing is diplomatic civil disobedience in terms of indicating their displeasure with the action of the Australian government.”
Mr Albanese said: “We actually support the law. Russia has not been real good at the law lately.”
Police advised reporters at the site on Thursday (June 22) not to cross the perimeter fence or gate which was chained and padlocked from the inside.
A hand occasionally shifting blinds was the only evidence anyone was inside the small cabin.
Russia last week accused Australia of “Russophobic hysteria” for cancelling the lease, after a deterioration in relations since the Ukraine war began last year.
