The federal government must compensate the Russian government for the way it evicted the country from land allocated for a new embassy in Canberra.

The High Court ruled that the Commonwealth was liable to pay "a reasonable amount of compensation" after taking the land away from the Russian Federation. It should also pay the costs of the case.

How much "reasonable compensation" might be was not clear but the Russian government previously said that it had spent $8 million on the site in Yarralumla before the Commonwealth took the land away from it.

On Wednesday, the High Court ruled that the government had the legal right to take the land away but compensation should have been paid.

When the lease was agreed, the Russian government paid the Commonwealth government $2.75 million, with a

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