Australian security agencies are trying to paint Russia as a “bogeyman” and Russians living here are now at risk of arbitrary arrest, Moscow’s top diplomat in Canberra has complained.

Less than a fortnight after two Russian-born, naturalised Australians were accused by Australian Federal Police of spying for the Kremlin, Russian ambassador Aleksey Pavlovsky suggested the Brisbane couple were unwitting pawns to justify Australia’s ongoing military aid for Ukraine.