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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.

Canada moved into the three-storey building in 1951, but leaving has proved to be a bureaucratic nightmare that has cost the government nearly $47 million, a number which is only expected to climb.

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As a temporary solution, Canada’s diplomats will move in with their British counterparts this year, abandoning the old embassy thata government briefing memo described as “presenting significant health and safety risks” to people working there.

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.