Very sad day for Australia to see this in the press about the Prime Minister

[alexander*beetle]

These comments on the Pravda website. 

• I seriously hope President Putin washes his hands and sterilizes them after touching the grubby paw of Abbott. Tony Abbott displays a degree of insolence, arrogance and incompetence.
• Once again, we see a country whose political class is divorced from the collective will of its people yet we see a politician who thinks it is cool to be rude, insolent, insulting, impolite, impertinent, unpolished, gross, unpleasant and downright impudent.

Many more comments too. I'm sure many Australians, though not all, are very disappointed to have our country's leader spoken of this way. I've read lots of derogatory comments from various news websites from around the world and it seems he has trashed the position and how we are viewed by many other countries. And I stress not every country is knocking him but enough to know that he is not popular. 

"Tony Abbott said today that he will "shirtfront" Russian president Vladimir Putin when the pair meet at the G20 meeting in Brisbane next month."  Is this seriously how we treat other world leaders? What happened to open dialogue and discussion? 

We were once so admired for our leaders as statesmen, from both sides of politics. Tony Abbott has brought much criticism and shame and embarrassment to the position. No matter what side of politics, the position of Prime Minister should be held with respect but when we have one in the position who bullies and insults world leaders, then it is their prerogative to comment.

It is going to take some doing to win back the respect we once held.  

[boris1gary]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/14/tony-abbotts-threat-to-shirtfront-putin-immature-russia...

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

Embassy official says Australian-Russian relations at a ‘historic low’ and Abbott more interested in ‘muscle flexing’ than investigating MH17

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”.

“We are reluctant to comment officially on the statements. They are not helpful in any way, we are concentrating on making peace in Ukraine. We have 100,000 refugees from Ukraine in Russia. It’s very difficult so we are not involved in exchanging megaphone statements and muscle flexing.”

Odoevskiy said, in spite of the megaphone diplomacy, the west had lost interest in the investigation into MH17. He said at the crash site – where 298 passengers and crew were killed when MH17 was shot down – there were still large pieces of the Malaysian Airlines plane.

“There have been a lot of question marks raised by the Russian ministry of defence which have been unanswered by Australia, Holland and Kiev,” he said.

He said Russia had “co-operated from day one” of the MH17 crash, while Australia sponsored a UN resolution condemning the shooting down of the plane and demanding full access to the site.

“We all know from day one, [Australian] leadership promoted the start of a blame game and it was not helpful to real investigation,” Odoevskiy said.

“My feeling is more could be done to put people on the ground. There is lots of evidence, on the ground, large fragments on the ground, still lying there. In a normal investigation, those pieces would have been collected. The aircraft would have been reconstructed [but] the west has lost interest. Everyone talks about politics. This is frustrating.”

He described Russian relations at an “historic low”, down from the high in 2007 when former prime minister John Howard invited Putin to separate bilateral meetings during the Apec summit.

“That was a big success, then relations were on a historic high. Now under this Liberal government, relations are on a historic low,” he said.

[icyfroth]

---

@*julia*2010 wrote:

---

@boris1gary wrote:

maybe email him and ask.

---

thank you -  i'll remember that   

---

The comeback you use when you don't want to say "I don't know".

I've used it myself.

[icyfroth]

---

@boris1gary wrote:

The investigation is ongoing - unlike other nations we have accused, sat in judgement and found Russia guilty with no evidence at all, seems to be the way forward here these days.

---

Actually I think that's quite funny 

[raptor_rebooted]

Actually I think that's quite funny 

same! there are some good ones

popping up everywhere

[boris1gary]

---

@icyfroth wrote:

---

@*julia*2010 wrote:

---

@boris1gary wrote:

maybe email him and ask.

---

thank you -  i'll remember that   

---

The comeback you use when you don't want to say "I don't know".

I've used it myself.

---

yes icyfroth, I don't know - I think on this issue Shorten is as full of bs as abbott.

[***super_nova***]

---

@kilroy_is_here wrote:
At least he has courage to confront him and demand answers for those who died and their families, the wording wasn't wonderful but at least the intent was clear , personally bill shortens response wasn't any better

---

Threatening physical violence against another country's leader is just something unheard of.  Funny that nobody was talking about "murder" and "criminal investigation" when the USA shot down passenger plane. 

Has anybody actually watch Abbot blubbing ?  What he said was "I am going to shirt-front Mr.Putin............you bet you are..............you bet I am......................"  He cannot even put simple sentence together if he does not read it.  I am sure Putin is quaking in his boots.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australians-were-murdered--i-am-going-to-shirt...

[kilroy_is_here]

At least he is demanding answers , where is the rest of the world, where's bill shorten hiding under his desk saying he's not nice I won't talk to him

[azureline**]

Bill Shorten is not the PM? he can hide where ever he chooses. Even he knows better than to threaten violence on a foreign head of state.

[purplecarrot-top]

Why would the the leader of a country threaten another leader with personal violence?

So if Abbott shirt fronts Putin would Putin's body guards be within their rights to shoot Abbott?

[boris1gary]

---

@kilroy_is_here wrote:
At least he is demanding answers , where is the rest of the world, where's bill shorten hiding under his desk saying he's not nice I won't talk to him

---

"demanding answers", no, he is grandstanding to a domestic audience - why not request a meeting, maybe travel there as he is rarely in Oz and sit down face to face and make his "demands". Did you miss Shorten pretty much repeating abbotts rubbish with out the look at me rhetoric.