KREMLIN’S FINEST

Russian Diplomat Gives Up Squatting in Shed After Court Defeat

The unnamed Russian had been occupying land Moscow had earmarked for a new embassy near the Australian parliament.

A Russian diplomat who had been squatting on a patch of land near the Australian parliament grabbed his belongings and left Monday after the country’s High Court sided with the government in a legal battle with Moscow. The unnamed diplomat became the country’s best-connected squatter after a law was passed terminating Russia’s lease on a plot less than half a mile from Parliament House because of security fears. Russia said it should retain control of the Canberra site while its legal challenge to the law was heard—a request rejected by a judge on Monday. Shortly afterward the squatting diplomat, in a puffer jacket and orange beanie and carrying a bag of groceries, left the site and was driven away in a silver-colored embassy vehicle. The Sydney Morning Herald said the man, who had spent almost a week in a shed on the site despite sub-zero temperatures, refused to answer questions from journalists as he did so. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejected suggestions last week that the diplomat should be evicted, saying “some bloke standing on a blade of grass” did not threaten national security.