Russia on Friday challenged Australia’s decision to end the Kremlin’s lease for a new embassy already under construction on land near the Australian Parliament. Photo by Mick Tsikas/EPA-EFE
June 23 (UPI) — The Russian government approached the Australia High Court on Friday to challenge a new law that allowed Australia to end the Kremlin’s lease for a new embassy already under construction in Yarralumla.
Attorneys representing Russian Ambassador Alexey Pavlovsky filed an injunction in the High Court against new laws that tore up the Kremlin’s lease, charging it has had a lease on the property since 2008 and has already spent $8.2 million in construction and related work.
The Australian government said Moscow’s prospective embassy on land next to Australia’s Parliament House presents a possible national security risk. Australia’s National Capital Authority issued an eviction order to the Russian embassy to leave the site in August, about six months after Russia invaded Ukraine.
“The government has received very clear security advice as to the risk presented by a new Russian presence so close to Parliament House,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last week. “Weare acting quickly to ensure the lease site does not become a formal diplomatic presence.”
A new law passed in the fall allowed the government to end the lease altogether.
“The Russian Federation has informed the Commonwealth of its intention to commence legal proceedings in the High Court, in which they will challenge the validity of the legislation on constitutional grounds,” a spokesperson for the Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said.
“Russia’s challenge to the validity of the law is not unexpected. This is part of the Russian playbook.”
Russia’s signed the 99-year lease for the property in 2008 with ongoing annual rental payments of just five cents. Since then, Russia was slow to develop the land, which the Albanese government has seized on in revoking the agreement.
Moscow had said it start building its new embassy 18 months after signing the agreement but failed to do so until recently.
In an unusual twist, a man believed to be a Russian diplomat has been allegedly squatting on the proposed Russian embassy building site in defiance of Australian law.
Albanese said he was not concerned about the man being a security threat, describing him as “some bloke standing on a blade of grass.”
“Australia will stand up for our values and we will stand up for our national security,” he said.