Canada moved into the three-storey building in 1951, but leaving has proved to be a $47 million bureaucratic nightmare
Russian Czar Nicholas II was relatively new to the throne when the building where Canadian diplomats work in Moscow was built in 1898. There was barely a whiff of the revolutionary sentiment in the air that would lead to his death by firing squad 20 years later.
Britain has been in a tense diplomatic posture with Moscow since the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, and his daughter Yulia Skripal in England in March 2018. The United Kingdom ordered 23 Russian diplomats out of the country not long after the incident and the Russian government has demanded roughly 50 Britons leave Moscow, freeing up some room in their embassy.
A redacted briefing memo sent to then foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland in 2018 and obtained through access to information, describes the building as having “major structural” issues and electrical problems. The government has since spent approximately $11.3 million just to keep the building in a minimum level of operation.
The audit found the embassy had a few issues, but was generally well managed. It did highlight that with all the problems, it was a hard place to attract staff for assignments. Getting Russian approval for diplomats was also a barrier and meant the building was often short staffed. When Canada moves to the British embassy, that work will continue, but it is still expected to take another five or six years to complete.
The National Post spoke with a government employee who worked in the Canadian embassy building more than a decade ago, who said even back then the building was showing its advanced age.They said getting Canada’s bureaucracy aligned to replace the building with Moscow’s bureaucracy was an ongoing challenge and there were multiple sites proposed as replacements that never came to pass.The audit said corruption is a major barrier to getting things done in Moscow.
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