The Australian government will oppose the construction of a new Russian embassy next to Parliament in Canberra, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Thursday, citing a national security risk.
The government has consulted with intelligence and “has received very clear security advice about the risk posed by a new Russian presence so close to parliament,” Mr. Albanese told reporters.
Russia has been leasing a plot of land near Parliament in Canberra to an agency of the Australian federal government since 2008, and in 2011 obtained a permit to build its new embassy there.
In August 2022, the government had tried to terminate the lease for non-compliance with certain clauses of the building permit, but this decision was canceled by federal justice last May.
Mr. Albanese announced that for lack of any other possible legal means, a specific law would be passed by Parliament, with the support of the opposition, to terminate the lease and prevent the construction of the Russian embassy.
“We are acting quickly to ensure that the leased site does not become an official diplomatic presence,” the prime minister said.
He said he expected Russia to retaliate or try another legal action. “We’ll see what the answer will be, but we also anticipated that,” he said.
“We don’t think Russia is in a good position to talk about international law, given that it has so consistently and brazenly rejected it with its invasion of Ukraine,” Albanese said.
For the Australian Minister of the Interior, Clare O’Neil, the new embassy that Russia wishes to build 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,” she said, adding that the location is “directly adjacent” to the Parliament buildings.
The current Russian diplomatic mission is in the Griffith district, in the south of the city, far from any sensitive buildings.