MOSCOW, June 27. /TASS/. Australia’s recent move to terminate Russia’s lease to a land plot for the site of its new embassy building shows Canberra’s disdain for the supremacy of the law, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a comment on Tuesday.

"While engaged in concluding an agreement to settle the dispute, the Australian authorities were simultaneously making active efforts to draft an alternative plan for seizing Russian diplomatic property," the Russian diplomat argued, describing the move as unscrupulous and demonstrative of disdain for the principle of the supremacy of the law; Zakharova also expressed doubt about its legality.

The Australian authorities first attempted in August 2022 to cancel the lease to the land plot on which Russia planned to build a new embassy. According to them, the lease was terminated because Russia had not completed work on the building within three years since the construction permit was issued and unfinished construction work "detracts from the overall aesthetic, importance and dignity of the area reserved for diplomatic missions and foreign representation in the National Capital." The Russian diplomatic mission appealed the decision, which the Australian Federal Court initially reversed on May 31, 2023, only to have that ruling rescinded on June 15 when the Australian government, citing national security concerns, shepherded a bill through parliament allowing it to unilaterally terminate the lease.

The Russian embassy in Australia slammed Canberra’s decision as "another step by [Australian Prime Minister] Anthony Albanese toward a deliberate and systematic destruction of relations with Moscow." Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Canberra, having annulled the lease, "is zealously continuing to hew to the mainstream line put forward by the authors of the Russophobic hysteria that now has Western countries in its grip. Australia is striving to be the star pupil in this area." He also noted that the Russian side would take this new hostile move into account and "act accordingly."