A Russian diplomat said his country was seeking ‘legal advice’ today, Thursday, after Australia stopped building a new embassy for him opposite Parliament in Canberra.
“The embassy is seeking legal advice,” the Russian diplomat told AFP, after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the proposed site as a “very clear” threat to national security.
Albanese told reporters the government had consulted with intelligence and “received very clear security advice on the risks posed by a new Russian presence so close to the parliament building.”
Russia has been leasing land adjacent to the parliament building in Canberra from an agency of the Australian federal government since 2008, and in 2011 Russia obtained a permit to build its new embassy on this land.
However, in August 2020, the Australian government tried to terminate the lease, claiming that the tenant did not respect certain clauses of the building permit, but the federal justice canceled its attempt last May.
On Thursday, Albanese said that after his government tried every legal means possible to prevent Russia from building a new embassy on the land, the only way left to him was to pass new legislation in parliament that would prevent Moscow from building a new embassy. go ahead with his project. .
“We are moving quickly to ensure that the leased site does not become an official diplomatic presence,” he added.
Albanese made it clear that he expected Russia to retaliate or file a new lawsuit, and said: “We’ll see what their response will be, but we’ve also anticipated that.” .
“We don’t think Russia is in a position to talk about international law, given that it has consistently and brazenly rejected it by invading Ukraine,” he added.
For her part, the Australian Minister of the Interior, Claire O’Neill, confirmed that the new embassy that Moscow wants to build in Canberra constitutes an obvious threat to the national security of the country.
“The main problem with the proposed second Russian embassy in Canberra is its location,” O’Neill said, noting that the location of the embassy is “immediately adjacent to Parliament.”
It should be noted that the current building of the Russian Embassy is located in the Griffith district, in the south of the city.
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