Australia to seek to stop Russia building embassy near Parliament House
By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian government expects to introduce legislation on Thursday to prevent Russia from building a new embassy near Parliament House on security grounds.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the legislation to be presented to Parliament would extinguish Russia’s lease on the proposed site based on the advice of security agencies.
“The government has received very clear security advice as to the risk presented by a new Russian presence so close to Parliament House,” Albanese told reporters. “We are acting quickly to ensure the lease site does not become a formal diplomatic presence.”
Albanese said Australia’s government condemns Russia’s “illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine.”
Albanese said opposition and other lawmakers that are not aligned with the government were briefed on the legislation on Wednesday night and had agreed to pass it through the House of Representatives and the Senate on Thursday.
“To be clear, today’s decision is one taken in the national security interests of Australia, and I thank the coalition (opposition) and crossbenchers in the House and the Senate for their cooperation in this matter,” Albanese said.
Albanese did not directly answer when asked if there were also security concerns about the Chinese embassy which is across a street from the Russian site.
“We’re dealing with this very specifically and it’s based upon very specific advice as well about the nature of the construction that’s proposed for this site, about the location of this site, and about the capability that would present in terms of potential interference with activity that occurs in this Parliament House,” Albanese said.
The government decided to act after Russia won a Federal Court case last month that prevented its eviction from the site which is under construction.
The lease was canceled by local Canberra authorities on the basis of a lack of building activity.
Russia currently occupies the former USSR embassy which is further from Parliament House than the new site.
