Tony Abbott’s threat to ‘shirtfront’ Putin ‘immature’, Russian official says

Tony Abbott’s threat to “shirtfront” Vladimir Putin has been labelled as “immature” by a Russian embassy official, who pointed out while Abbott may be a fit cyclist, the Russian president was a judo champion.

Embassy second secretary Alexander Odoevskiy also told Guardian Australia that the west, including Australia, had lost interest in the investigation into the crash of MH17, with Abbott preferring instead to play politics and conduct “megaphone statements and muscle flexing”. He also accused Bill Shorten of “unfriendly language”.

Odoevskiy said the Russian government had received no request from Abbott for a bilateral meeting during the G20 summit. He characterised Australian-Russian relations as at a “historic low”, compared with a high under the Howard government.
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