Russia loses Canberra embassy plot after high court ruling

Australia’s High Court has ruled that the government’s decision to terminate Russia’s 99-year land lease in Canberra—where Moscow had planned to build a new embassy—was lawful, SBS News reports.

Russia was granted the plot in 2008, but Australian authorities unilaterally cancelled the lease in 2023. In that year, Australia quickly passed laws to cancel Russia's lease on a plot of land where it planned to build an embassy, a few hundred metres from Parliament House in Canberra. The government claimed the site could pose a threat to national security.

Under the court’s ruling, the land reverts to Australian ownership. However, Russia will receive compensation for the early termination, and the Australian government must cover half of the legal costs.

Although construction permission for the embassy was issued in 2011, Russia had made no progress on the site. This lack of activity served as the formal basis for the government’s move to end the lease in 2022. At the time, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova described Canberra’s actions as “dishonest” and contrary to “the principles of the rule of law.”

By Khagan Isayev