Tony Abbott has vowed to “shirtfront” Vladimir Putin over the shooting down in Ukraine of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 if the Russian leader attends the G20 leaders’ summit next month in Brisbane.
The Australian prime minister, who will host the summit because his country holds the G20 presidency, said yesterday he would have “the toughest conversation of all” with Mr Putin about the downing of the flight, which resulted in the deaths of 26 Australian citizens.
“Look, I’m going to shirtfront Mr Putin – you bet I am,” he said. “I’m going to be saying to Mr Putin: Australians were murdered, and they were murdered by Russian-backed rebels using Russian-supplied equipment.