Seemingly inspired by the heroics of Sam Burgess during his “warmly” received visit to the NRL Grand Final, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has now vowed to “shirtfront” Russian President Vladimir Putin over the ongoing investigation into Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over a disputed area of Ukraine by rebels allegedly backed by Russian armed forces.
Speaking today ahead of the looming G20 Global Leaders’ Summit to be held in Brisbane in November, Prime Minister Abbott addressed the somewhat controversial decision to allow President Putin to enter the country and attend the conference, given the somewhat prickly relations between Russia and most of the international community.
When referring to Russia’s lackadaisical efforts to aid the investigation into the shooting down of civilian passenger flight MH17, Abbott made no bones about the fact that he was preparing to confront Putin.
For those of you unaware of what a shirtfront is, it’s this.
Though not said on the record, whispers from Liberal party insiders suggest that Abbott has taken the ball and run with this particularly metaphor, and will soon announce plans to “iron out” the senate if they don’t pass the budget, as well as his intentions to “run straight through” anyone raising issues of climate change at the G20 “like a bad Chinese dinner.”
After all he’s a man’s man, is Tone.
Photo: Mark Kolbe via Getty Images.
