The Russian ambassador to Australia has accused a protester of throwing a dead possum on to the grounds of the country’s existing embassy in Canberra.
Aleksey Pavlovsky levelled the accusation against a pro-Ukraine protester in an interview with the Canberra Times published on Thursday, while also arguing the Australian government had engaged in a “theatre of the absurd”.
The latest claims come amid an ongoing diplomatic dispute over the federal government’s decision to revoke Russia’s lease over a block of land in the Canberra suburb of Yarralumla for a new embassy building.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, cited “very clear security advice” that a Russian presence so close to Parliament House posed a risk, but Pavlovsky hinted that the decision could spark unspecified implications for Australian diplomats operating in Russia.
“Let me recount to you a story,” Pavlovsky told the Canberra Times.
The ambassador said that the incident occurred “a couple of weeks ago”, not at the proposed new embassy site but at the location of the existing Russian compound in Canberra Avenue in the nearby suburb of Griffith.
He said a pro-Ukraine protester outside the compound, “choosing a moment when police were not around, threw a dead possum body over the fence to the embassy territory”.
“Most probably, he saw this vulgar act of hooliganism as some form of commendable political signalling,” Pavlovsky told the newspaper.
He went on to liken the marsupial incident to the Albanese government’s decision to rush laws through parliament earlier this month to revoke the lease over a site of the proposed new embassy complex near Parliament House.
“I’m struggling with the thought that the motives behind the government’s vindictive actions around the Yarralumla site are of some kind of similar nature,” Pavlovsky said.
The Canberra Times also quoted Pavlovsky as saying Russia would not “impede” Australian diplomats in Russia because that would be against the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.
Alluding, however, to unspecified measures that may somehow mirror the Australian decision, he added: “Reciprocity is reciprocity”.
Guardian Australia has sought comment from the Russian and Ukrainian embassies and the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations.
A high court judge on Monday rejected Russia’s application to temporarily hold on to the site of the proposed new embassy in Canberra while a broader constitutional challenge is heard.
Justice Jayne Jagot said Russia’s constitutional challenge against the Australian government’s new laws appeared to be “weak, indeed, as I have said, often difficult to understand”.
An hour after the high court ruling, a Russian official who had been squatting in a demountable left in a diplomatic vehicle and didn’t say anything to waiting reporters.
The Australian government later put up at least three do-not-enter signs along the makeshift fences on the perimeter saying: “This land belongs to the Commonwealth. Trespassing on this land is prohibited. Unauthorised entry on this land is prohibited.”
On Wednesday and Thursday, at least two Russian diplomatic vehicles were seen inside the perimeter, possibly removing items from the demountable and the already partially constructed new embassy building.
The Australian government is aware of this activity and Australian federal police officers have continued to monitor the site.
It is currently unclear when the high court might hear Russia’s full constitutional challenge to the federal laws.
The Australian government has strongly opposed Russia’s “immoral and illegal” invasion of Ukraine. On Monday it announced a new $110m assistance package including military vehicles, ammunition and humanitarian funding.
The government also said the upheaval in Russia over the weekend – in which the head of the Wagner mercenary group attempted an armed revolt – was a sign of internal division.
The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, said on Monday the episode had left Russia in a weaker position and was “a crack in the edifice” although the president, Vladimir Putin, was “still very much in charge” of the country.
