On Violations of the Rights of Russian Citizens and Fellow Citizens in Foreign Countries (Report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation)

Australia

According to the last census, held in August 2021, the Green Continent is home to about 98,000 natives of Russia, which is about 0.4 per cent of the country's population. Most of all compatriots live in the states of Victoria and New South Wales – up to 40,000-45,000 people.

Russophobia fueled by the Australian authorities and the Ukrainian community (including the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organizations) has certainly added to the burden on Russian citizens and compatriots living in the country. The Russian Embassy in Canberra has received reports of isolated instances of hostility or animosity towards them.

The country's major media issue anti-Russian content on a regular basis. Expressing any alternative views has become virtually impossible. In March 2022, Stan Grant, the host of a popular Q+A talk show expelled a young audience of Russian descent from the studio for his attempt to voice an opinion in support of Russia's actions.

In March 2023, SBS Russian,[1] a Russian branch of Australian public broadcaster SBS, issued an article about a Russian young man called Ruslan, whose application to Deakin University, one of the country's leading universities, was rejected. The University cited as a reason the discriminatory decision it adopted in March 2022 to cease cooperation with new students from Russia (including those with a residence permit in Australia) and foreign citizens residing in the territory of Russia.

In November 2023, according to the Australian media, the University of Tasmania accused its employee, a Russian-born academic, Vadim Kamenetsky, of allegedly exposing the University to "high risk" of foreign "interference" by receiving funds from Russian institutions and conducting research with the Russian Science Foundation and the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In October 2023, the government of South Australia cancelled the Kalinka Russian Ensemble composed of local children and young people of Russian heritage from the line-up of an annual Multicultural Festival in Adelaide in November under pressure from the Ukrainian community. The Russian Embassy in Australia, in turn, published a statement in its social media demanding to stop discrimination against Russians in South Australia reminding Canberra of its obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The statement also noted that the ideology of ethnic hatred which forms the essence of the Kiev regime is now aggressively imposed in Australia with the connivance of the Australian authorities. A demarche was taken by the embassy.

In November 2023, it became known that the management of one of the country's largest educational centres offering the study of Russian language and culture – Macquarie University (Sydney) – decided to abandon the teaching of five languages, including Russian. As of March 2024, there were approximately 100 students from across Australia enrolled in the course, including online. A petition was launched by students in defence of the Russian language department at Macquarie. Despite the fact that it collected 1,365 signatures, enrollment in the Russian language department will be halted as early as September 2025.

The Australian Tennis Federation has extended the ban imposed in 2023 on the display of Russian and Belorussian flags at the Australian Open Tennis Championships in Melbourne in January 2024.

For two consecutive years the Australia Day Council of South Australia has banned the members of the Russian Cultural Center and the athletes of the local sambo federation from taking part in the traditional 26 January parade. In 2024, notification of the removal of Russian compatriots from the list was sent only four days before the event.

It is worth noting that the authorities do not prevent the Victory Day celebrations. On 4 May 2024, an Immortal Regiment march took place in Sydney CBD. On 9 May in Sydney's Waverley Park, the Russian Ambassador to Australia and citizens honouring the heroic deeds of the Soviet army laid wreaths at the memorial plaque to the Soviet soldiers-liberators.


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