MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd June, 2023) An alleged Russian diplomat illegally occupied the site that was intended for the Russian Embassy in Canberra until the lease contract was terminated, Australian media reported on Friday, adding that local police cannot remove the man due to immunity.
Last week, the Australian government passed emergency legislation to terminate over security concerns Russia's lease agreement on the site next to the parliament building in Canberra where Moscow planned to build a new embassy. Earlier on Friday, the Russian Embassy in Australia told Sputnik that it had applied to the Supreme Court to keep the lease agreement.
The employee of the Russian embassy lives in a hut on the disputed piece of land, smokes cigarettes and orders food there, the Sky news Australia broadcaster reported. Police is monitoring the "squatter," but cannot detain him because of his diplomatic immunity.
"The national security threat that was represented by a Russian embassy on site is not the same as some bloke standing on a blade of grass on the site that we don't see really as a threat to our national security," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a press conference, commenting on the man.
Moscow described the decision to terminate the lease contract as "a frankly politicized and unfriendly move aimed at causing additional damage to bilateral relations, which, thanks to the efforts of official Canberra, have reached their lowest point in history."
Australia's National Capital Authority (NCA) granted the lease for the site to Russia in 2008 to build a new building for the embassy there. In August 2022, the NCA terminated Russia's lease due to a lack of construction activity. In May 2023, the Federal Court of Australia ruled that the decision by the NCA was invalid. The Australian government decided to fast-track the termination of the lease agreement through parliament.
Russia currently uses the former USSR embassy in the Griffith suburb of Canberra, which is farther from the Australian parliament building than the disputed site.
