ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY

Russian Diplo Squatting in Shed Near Parliament Just ‘Some Bloke’: Aussie PM

The man seen sporting a puffer jacket and smoking at the site isn’t a national security threat, Albanese said.

A man suspected of being a Russian diplomat allegedly squatting on the site where a Moscow embassy was planned to be built in Australia is just “some bloke,” the Australian prime minister said Friday. A Russian embassy was supposed to go up on the site opposite the Australian parliament in Canberra, but the Australian government revoked a lease last week citing national security concerns. Several local reports have suggested that a man, purportedly a Russian diplomat, has remained on the site despite the cancellation and has been photographed wearing jeans and a puffer jacket while smoking a cigarette. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday answered questions about reports that the man was now living in a shed on the site. “The national security threat that was represented by a Russian embassy on site is not the same as some bloke standing on a blade of grass on the site—that, we don’t see really as a threat to our national security,” Albanese said.