Cold War folly in wintry capital

Canberra’s winter stand-off with a squatting Russian diplomat has all the ingredients of a Cold War spoof. The Australian Federal Police is keeping watch as a Putin man stands his ground in a demountable building on an undeveloped block of land near Parliament House in the nation’s capital.

New laws have been enacted to stop Russia building a new embassy on the site. The Russian Federation is believed to be poised to take its case to the Federal or possibly High Court to challenge the new laws that prevent the site ever being used by Russia for an embassy.

Announcing the ban in parliament, Anthony Albanese said the decision to cancel Russia’s lease on the site “was taken in the national security interests of Australia”. He said the government had “very clear security advice as to the risk presented by a new Russian presence”.

As we have editorialised previously, given Russia’s record for espionage and thinly disguised cyber attacks, the decision – quickly enacted into law with opposition support – was the right one to take.

The fact the issue has descended into high farce underscores the diplomatic offence taken by Russia, which has accused Australia of indulging in an outbreak of Russophobic hysteria that is now taking place in Western countries following the Kremlin’s decision to illegally invade Ukraine. Diplomatic slights aside, Russia has not been expelled from Australia. It is the sensitive location of the embassy site that is at issue, not Russia’s diplomatic presence in the country.

The Kremlin maintains its diplomatic premises in nearby Griffith and there is no suggestion that Russian activities there are being curtailed.

The courts will no doubt decide on the validity of Canberra’s actions. Fair compensation might well be due. But it is the height of arrogance for a foreign power to seek to assert itself where it is not wanted. The Russian diplomat is technically trespassing because Russia’s lease over the land has been legally invalidated, but arrest is problematic because he is entitled to claim diplomatic immunity. If nothing else, the affair provides another window into the quaint diplomatic conventions in which a country’s agents are immune from normal prosecution. If things escalate, expect tit-for-tat expulsions from both countries. But, rather than be concerned about a potential spy base embassy on the other side of the world, Russia should concentrate its efforts on repairing the damage it has wrought on its now war-ravaged neighbour.