Russia’s high court bid over Canberra embassy fails but Australian government to pay costs

Russia has failed in a high court bid to build a new embassy in Canberra, but the federal government will have to pay compensation for cancelling its lease, and cover the costs of the case. The high court ruled in a majority decision that it was legal for the lease to be cancelled in 2023. But it found that Russia should be compensated after the 99-year lease signed in 2008 for $2.75m was cancelled. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Lawyers for the Russian federation had described the compensation bid as its “fallback case” if it was prevented from building a new embassy on the site. The court noted in its decision that Anthony Albanese said in cancelling the lease the government had “received very clear security advice as to the risk presented by a new Russian presence so close to Parliament House” and that the proposed legislation to cancel the lease was “based upon very specific advice ... about the nature of the construction that’s proposed for this site, about the location of the site, and about the capability that that would present in terms of potential interference with activity that occurs in this Parliament House”. More details soon …