🇷🇺🇦🇺Australian parliament joins hands to block new Russian embassy (Part 1)

Russia already has an embassy in the Canberra suburb of Griffith, but for some years it has investigated the possibility of building a second embassy site to enhance its diplomatic presence.

The unprecedented parliamentary action was carried out on vague, security grounds that the second embassy would be in close proximity to the parliament. But, as some commentators have noted, the US, China and several other countries have embassy facilities a similar distance from the national parliament.

No concrete explanation was provided for the urgent need to block the construction of the building. Instead, the Labor government cited unspecified advice from unnamed “security agencies” who asserted that the building, which has yet to be constructed, would constitute a threat to “national security.”

The clear implication was that it would be used for electronic espionage—something many countries do. As 2013 leaks by US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden made clear, successive American governments have used embassies and diplomatic missions as spying centres, including on allied states such as Germany.

Parliament, however, is a public building. Its main deliberations are publicly available through the publication of Hansards and television broadcasts of important sittings. To the extent that sensitive discussions on “national security” issues take place in the parliamentary building, undoubtedly advanced counter-surveillance measures would be taken.

In other words, the decision to block the embassy was a political decision. It dovetailed with the escalation of the US-NATO war effort in Ukraine which is ever more openly a war between Washington and its allies against Russia.

To legitimise its military actions against Moscow, the US administration of President Joe Biden has continued and intensified a protracted anti-Russian propaganda campaign, waged for some years by segments of the US political establishment, especially the Democratic Party and the intelligence agencies. This has included claims of “Russian interference” and spying in American politics and society, never with any substantiation.

The Labor government’s move is entirely in keeping with this narrative and serves to bolster it. Moreover, it is significant that the government, backed by all parties, took the unusual step of resorting to legislation to override a prior ruling of the judiciary, in a clear breach of the separation of powers.

In 2008, the Russian government bought the lease for the site in the Canberra suburb of Yarralumla. In 2011, the National Capital Authority (NCA), a regulatory body responsible for diplomatic zones of the capital, approved the plans for a new embassy to be built on it.

For many years, Russia did nothing with the site. In 2022, the NCA announced that it had terminated the lease, but it did so on the grounds that land for diplomatic missions was in limited supply. An NCA statement complained that the unused Russian lot detracted “from the overall aesthetic, importance and dignity of the area reserved for diplomatic missions and foreign representation in the national capital.”

On the surface at least, the complaint was entirely separate and distinct from the current line about potential Russian spying. The fact that Russia has moved at such a slow pace to develop the embassy, moreover, demonstrates that it is not a top priority for the Russian government for espionage or other reasons.

A Russian challenge to the termination was successful. A Federal Court found on May 31 that the termination was “invalid and of no effect,” and that the Russian authorities had a right to the “quiet enjoyment of the land” that they had leased.

👇Continued

🇷🇺🇦🇺Australian parliament joins hands to block new Russian embassy (Part 2)

The parliamentary discussion on the legislation blocking the Russian embassy took just a few minutes.

Clare O'Neil, Labor’s Minister for Home Affairs, spoke for a minute or less. She just repeated the vague assertions of the building posing a “national security” threat.

Significantly, O’Neil did comment on the unanimity across parliament, declaring: “There is necessarily a lot of focus on the conflict that goes on in this building; there is not as much reporting and discussion about the moments of goodwill and national unity. I want to thank the opposition, the Greens and the crossbench for the way in which they have worked with the government and the concern they have shown for the national security information that we have been providing them.”

In other words, the legislation involved not simply the government and the Liberal-National opposition, but literally every political tendency in parliament, from the Greens, to far-right populists and so-called “Teal” independents.

That is particularly striking because the very week that the anti-Russian measure was rushed through, parliament was dominated by infighting and mutual recriminations over sexual misconduct scandals. The parties fought bitterly on these issues, but they came together on the question of the Russian embassy, touching, as it did, on the demands of the intelligence agencies and the promotion of militarist aggression and justifications for war.

In a press conference the same day, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese all but acknowledged that what the parliament had done may have breached international laws related to the rights of diplomatic missions. “We don’t expect that Russia’s in a position to talk about international law, given their rejection of it so consistently and so brazenly with their invasion of Ukraine and the atrocities that have occurred, that are occurring on an ongoing basis,” he stated.

Who is Albanese to speak of international law? Australian governments, Labor and Coalition, have participated in every criminal US-led war over the past 80 years. In the more recent period alone, that has included the illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq as well as the decades-long occupation of Afghanistan, during which Australian troops committed documented war crimes, including the murder of civilians and prisoners.

Far from intervening in Ukraine to defend “national sovereignty” and democracy, the US and its allies have stoked and exploited the conflict to further the same American imperialist aims that laid waste to the Middle East and Central Asia. Washington is fighting a proxy war to the last Ukrainian in a bid to inflict a decisive military defeat on Russia, viewed as an obstacle to the prosecution of US geo-political interests. That includes the mounting US-led confrontation with China, which US strategists say is the chief threat to Washington’s global dominance.

Australia fully supports the proxy war in Ukraine. The Labor government, it was revealed this week, has been in discussions about sending Hornet fighter jets to the battlefields in a move that could trigger a world war. At the same time, it has been at the forefront of a diplomatic offensive against China as well as a vast military build-up in preparation for war against it.

The coming together of the parliament against the construction of a new Russian embassy is another demonstration that this program of war is supported by the entire official political establishment.

By Oscar Grenfell

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☢❓

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❗️These videos are making US citizens increasingly more concerned. One user has claimed that such movement has been witnessed across 27 US states, as well as a number of states across Canada.

👇Fake News/social media hype? Or something else... What do you think is going on?

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❗️Have you earned your place in Russia's military history?

🇷🇺The informational war is ongoing and history will judge all of us either by our cowardice or our courage displayed during the informational war.

📝In the future, after Russian victory - historians, analysts and investigators will look back, research and ask:

❓Which side were you on?

❓What did you do to help your side?

🌏Remember, on the 12th of June 2023 Vladimir Putin reminded us that we must all take collective responsibility for Russia's fate.

⚡️Be part of history. Be part of Russia's victory. FWD this post and remind the cowards to speak up before it's too late.

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⏰️How long until we see photos of destroyed British Challenger tanks on the battlefield?

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🇺🇸 The incriminating 5 min clip which the Biden's are desperately trying to hide.

🌎 Share. FWD. Save. Re-upload.

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🟦Prime Minister Albanese declares the small Russian Embassy construction site (Blue) as a "National Security threat" because of its proximity to Parliament House in Canberra.

🟥Meanwhile, the Chinese Government has not one, but TWO massive Embassy compounds (Red) which are also right next to Parliament, but apparently according to Albanese the Chinese do not pose any security risk whatsoever.

🇦🇺Is this some kind of a joke Albo?😂

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❗️The MSM Fake News are showing their desperation with ridiculous stories like this.

😂Instead of providing evidence of their claims they simply write "sources say".

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🟥In Mexico, as well as in the United States, massive troop movements began in response to US preparations to conduct an operation to destroy cartels in the territory of a neighbouring country

🟥National Security Adviser and US Secretary of State are in favor of carrying out the operation

🟥The Mexican authorities have already stated that they will regard such actions as an invasion of their territory.

🟥Other reports indicate that the Mexican Government will allow US troops on its sovereign soil to fight the cartels.

⚡️PS. Russia & China need to arm Mexico immediately with the equivalent of what USA gave Taiwan & Ukraine.

❗️What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Time to return the favor.

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