The High Court of Australia yesterday dismissed Russia’s application for an injunction that would have prevented Moscow’s embassy in Canberra from being evicted.
A man who had been occupying the site in a portable cabin for more than a week in an apparent act of Russian defiance left soon after.
Australian High Court Justice Jayne Jagot described Russia’s challenge to a law terminating the lease as weak.
Photo: Bloomberg
“I do not perceive [Russia’s] case ... to be a strong one. Indeed it is difficult to identify a serious question to be tried,” Jagot said.
The Australian parliament passed emergency legislation on June 15 that terminated Russia’s lease on the largely empty block on security grounds, as the new embassy would have been too close to Parliament House.
Australian government lawyer Tim Begbie said that Russia appeared to be making the injunction application to protect its security and intelligence interests.
“It’s not just that they haven’t made a compelling case for constitutional invalidity in this application, they have made absolutely no case for it,” Begbie said.
Lawyer Elliot Hyde, who is representing Russia, had said that Russian ambassador to Australia Alexey Pavlovsky would not have confidence in the integrity and security of a consular building already on the site if the embassy was not allowed to maintain possession until the challenge to the validity of the lease termination was decided.
A man who has been living on the site in a portable cabin since last week was a security guard protecting the compound, Elliot said.
The man had been described by local media as a Russian diplomat.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he welcomed the High Court decision and expected the Russians to leave the site.
“The court has made clear that there is no legal basis for a Russian presence to continue on the site at this time, and we expect the Russian Federation to act in accordance with the court’s ruling,” Albanese told reporters.
The security guard left the fenced compound after the decision and did not speak to reporters as he walked out the gate.
He was carrying bags and was collected by a vehicle with diplomatic license plates.
The Russian embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
Previously, Russia had accused Australia of “Russophobic hysteria” for canceling the lease of the site in Canberra’s diplomatic quarter, where Moscow wanted to build a new embassy.
The Russian embassy is in the Canberra suburb of Griffith and its operations are unaffected.
The published list of accredited Russian diplomats in Australia reveal that there are only three male diplomats who could be the man guarding the embassy site, Australian National University international law expert Don Rothwell said.
Based on Elliot’s description of the man guarding the site, Rothwell said he doubted the man had diplomatic immunity, which could have prevented Australian authorities from removing him from the site.
With him gone, police secured the site and prevented any Russian diplomat from taking his place, which avoids any further legal challenges, Rothwell said.
Australian Federal Police last week declined to explain why the man had not been removed from the contested site as a trespasser.
The legal wrangle over the site is a new low point in strained relations between Russia and Australia, which is one of Ukraine’s most generous supporters outside NATO.
Albanese yesterday announced an additional A$110 million (US$73.4 million) in aid to Ukraine that would include 70 military vehicles and 28 M113 armored personnel carriers.
The aid also includes ammunition and A$10 million in humanitarian help for shelter, health services, clean water and sanitation.
The new aid package brings Australia’s total Ukraine aid bill to A$790 million since Russia invaded last year.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS