Australia ordered to pay Russia for embassy takeover
Australia could retake the site of a proposed Russian embassy but would have to pay compensation for the authoritarian state’s forcible seizure.
The Supreme Court has ruled that valid federal laws have been passed to repossess land Russia has leased to build a new embassy in Canberra on national security grounds.
However, the Commonwealth was constitutionally obliged to pay reasonable compensation for the purchase. He said this in his decision on Wednesday.
The Commonwealth will have to pay half of Russia’s costs for the case.
In 2023, Australia quickly passed laws canceling Russia’s lease on a plot of land where it planned to build an embassy a few hundred meters from the Houses of Parliament.
Russia has rejected the cancellation of the 99-year lease by the Australian government in 2008, calling it a hostile act amounting to “Russian anti-hysteria”.
No development has been completed on the land, but an official has squatted on the land following the decision, frustrating every Australian effort to reclaim the land.
Russia took the fight to the Supreme Court, arguing that the laws were unconstitutional because there was no evidence of a national security threat.
Representatives argued that Russia was entitled to compensation if reinstatement failed.
Top silk Bret Walker SC, representing Russia, previously argued that it was offensive to assume that people would willingly give up their property without compensation because national security grounds were invoked.
He cited an army barracks as an example and said the Commonwealth had the right to acquire land around the structure to maintain security but was still expected to pay the owners.
Attorney General Stephen Donaghue argued that the government has the power and authority to pass laws that would eliminate Russians’ rental rights.
The Commonwealth also relied on “specific recommendations” about the nature of the planned construction and the capacity that the site’s location would provide the Russian mission.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organization’s advice was not detailed in court due to protections of public interest immunity.
Mr Donaghue previously told the Supreme Court that a country should not be compensated “for problems they themselves caused”.
Mr Walker said it was “truly troubling” to propose taking the land without compensation on pre-emptive national security grounds where no clear threat had been proven.
He said such a precedent was absurd and would mean “everyone should be considered a terrorist threat until proven otherwise.”
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