CANBERRA (AUSTRALIA) (TIP): A suspected lone Russian diplomat was seen squatting on the site of Moscow’s proposed embassy after the Australian government vetoed the plan on security grounds and with legislation that Russia will try to overturn in Australia’s highest court, sparking a national security standoff between Canberra and the Kremlin on June 23.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dismissed the Russian act of defiance in occupying the site in the capital city, saying a “bloke standing in the cold on a bit of grass in Canberra is not a threat to our national security.”
Albanese also said he was confident that the eviction would stand up to any Russian legal challenge. Parliament passed emergency legislation last week blocking on security grounds Russia’s lease on the largely empty block because the new embassy would have been too close to Parliament House.
A man has been living on the site in a portable building since Sunday, when passersby first saw Australian Federal Police outside the fenced block in Canberra’s 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. (AFP)