Russia loses legal battle to build embassy near Australia’s Parliament

Australia’s High Court says authorities acted wrong its rights erstwhile it passed a instrumentality revoking 99-year lease for planned Russian embassy site.

Russia has mislaid a ineligible combat to physique a caller embassy adjacent Australia’s Parliament, with the nation’s apical tribunal ruling that Canberra acted wrong its rights erstwhile it cancelled the lease for the site.

Australia passed authorities successful 2023 to mothball the planned embassy gathering aft officials deemed it to airs a information threat.

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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said astatine the clip that his authorities decided to revoke the lease implicit the “specific risk” posed by the site, located astir 300 metres (328 yards) from Parliament House.

Russia, which blasted the determination arsenic “Russophobic hysteria”, challenged the authorities successful court, arguing that it was not valid nether the Australian Constitution.

In a unanimous ruling connected Wednesday, the High Court recovered that the cancellation of the lease had been a “valid workout of the legislative power” to enact laws related to the acquisition of property.

The court, however, ruled that Russia was entitled to compensation after paying astir $2m for the 99-year lease successful 2008.

The tribunal antecedently rejected a bid by Moscow to halt its officials from being evicted from the site.

The authorities introduced caller authorities connected June 15 to extremity the Russian lease connected the onshore aft quality agencies warned the determination was a hazard to nationalist security.

In a connection pursuing the ruling, Attorney General Michelle Rowland said, “Australia volition ever basal up for our values and we volition basal up for our nationalist security.”

“The authorities welcomes the High Court’s determination that recovered the authorities acted lawfully successful terminating the Russian Embassy’s lease,” Rowland said successful a statement.

“The authorities volition intimately see the adjacent steps successful airy of the court’s decision,” Rowland added.

The Russian embassy said it was studying the judgement, according to Australian broadcaster ABC News.

“The Russian broadside volition cautiously survey the substance of the tribunal ruling, which sets a precedent,” an embassy authoritative said successful a statement.

Relations betwixt Australia and Russia person been strained for years.

Ties deteriorated sharply aft the downing of Malaysia Airlines formation MH17, which aggregate investigations blamed connected pro-Russian separatists, and past plunged further aft Moscow launched its full-scale penetration of Ukraine successful 2022.

#BREAKING: The lease was granted to Russia successful 2008, but was withdrawn erstwhile parliament passed a caller instrumentality citing ASIO proposal that the planned embassy could airs a menace to nationalist security. https://t.co/6S6bf37h7m

— ABC News (@abcnews) November 11, 2025