By Christine Chen

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia’s highest court on Wednesday blocked Russia from building a new embassy in the nation’s capital, unanimously upholding a law that cancelled its lease on national security grounds.

Russia owned a lease to a plot of land that is about 300 metres (984 feet) from Parliament House in Canberra and intended to build a new embassy building there to replace an older building elsewhere in the capital.

But in 2023, the Australian government introduced a law to cancel the lease after receiving “very clear security advice as to the risk presented by a new Russian presence so close to Parliament House,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at the time.

Russia challenged the law in front of the High Court of Australia, arguing parliament was not authorise

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