Russian ambassador calls Australia ‘vindictive’ after dead possum thrown over embassy fence

A sign at the site of the planned new Russian embassy in Canberra. The Russian ambassador to Australia has questioned what he calls the government’s ‘vindictive actions’ around the Yarralumla site. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

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”.