The National Capital Authority (NCA) has terminated the Russian embassy’s lease in Canberra. 

An issue has emerged over a plot of land in Canberra’s diplomatic precinct, where Russia was building a new embassy. 

The NCA says the embassy agreed to complete the building within three years, after a lease was granted in 2008 and building approvals in 2011. 

There has been some building activity on the block, but News Corp reporters say there have been some security concerns with the contractors working on the building. Home Affairs allegedly believes some of the builders are members of Russia’s Federal Security Service. 

The Russians have been slow to complete the project, and the NCA now says their uncompleted works are detracting from the diplomatic precinct’s aesthetic. 

The NCA’s objectives for the diplomatic precinct calls on diplomatic missions to “add visual interest and character” to the suburb. 

“With limited blocks currently available for diplomatic purposes, unless a country can demonstrate a willingness and ability to develop the site, the NCA supports a policy of ‘Use it or lose it’,” NCA chief executive Sally Barnes says. 

The embassy in the Canberra suburb of Yarralumla has been given 20 days to vacate, but the current Russian embassy in Griffiths is unaffected. 

A Russian embassy spokesperson has described the NCA’s decision as “unprecedented and highly unwelcome” move. The foreign office is reportedly seeking legal advice over the matter.

“The building project had indeed encountered multiple problems and delays through several years. At all times these were a matter of constructive and frank consultations between the embassy and the NCA,” an embassy spokesperson told reporters this week.

“It is really puzzling why the NCA chose to terminate the lease now that the construction process at Yarralumla site has been steadily going on uninterrupted for the last two-plus years with results already very much visible and prospects rather clear.”

Once the Russians relocate, the NCA says the site would be cleared and returned to the pool of land available for diplomatic missions.

This all occurs amid heightened tensions between Canberra and Moscow, given the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia. 

Australia is still enforcing sanctions against Vladimir Putin and Russian elites, restricting interactions with the Russian government, military, business and media.

Australian embassy staff were evacuated from Russia in February. 

Additionally, a team of Australian public servants has been put together specifically to hunt down economic sanction evasion.