CANBERRA, June 23, 2023 (AFP) — A mystery Russian diplomat with a penchant for cigarettes on Friday sparked a national security standoff between Canberra and the Kremlin, which is defying Australia’s efforts to kick him off a messy building site near parliament.
Australia last week blocked Russia from building its new embassy on a scruffy parcel of land a stone’s throw from Parliament House, after intelligence officials warned that Moscow would use the site as a base to spy on lawmakers.
A bespectacled Russian diplomat clad in track pants and a puffer jacket is now thwarting Australia’s efforts to reclaim the land, where he is squatting inside a portable security shed surrounded by weeds and discarded building materials.
Government sources have confirmed the man has diplomatic protection, but AFP has been unable to match him with Russia’s official list of representatives in Australia.
Australian police have been watching the site but the government is wary of arresting him, which could provoke Moscow into escalating an already tricky diplomatic situation.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday described the diplomat — who has been filmed leaving the shed to smoke cigarettes — as “some bloke standing in the cold on a blade of grass in Canberra”.
Russia bought the lease to the land from the Australian government in 2008, and in 2011 was granted approval to build its new embassy there.
Last week the Australian government announced it was tearing up the lease.
“The government has received very clear security advice as to the risk posed 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.”
A Russian diplomat last week told AFP the embassy was “seeking legal advice”, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was a demonstration of “Russophobic hysteria”.
