Putin gets short shrift as leaders get tough

CONFRONTATIONS with world leaders have piled new pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw his country’s troops from Ukraine.

CONFRONTATIONS with world leaders have piled new ­pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw his country’s troops from Ukraine, as he skipped the final session of the G20 summit to return home.

European and US leaders cleared the way for tougher personal sanctions against Mr Putin and his allies unless he ended the hostilities in Europe, amid concerns about his increasing use of military force there and elsewhere.

Mr Putin pushed back at the demands in meetings that went on for hours after the formal G20 sessions­ in Brisbane, including late-night talks with the German Chan­cellor, Angela Merkel, that extended into the early hours of yesterday.

Amid a domestic Australian political fight over the best way to confront the Russian government, leaders from other nations drama­tic­ally escalated their demands of the President in angry exchanges.

The Australian has confirmed that, after G20 leaders dined together on Saturday night, Ms Merkel and Mr Putin met with official­s at the Hilton Hotel in Brisbane for talks that began at 9.40pm and went for at least 3½ hours.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker then joined the talks for several more hours, according to a report in the German media.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who delivered a similar message to Mr Putin in a bilateral meeting on the weekend, said last night that the issue had become a test for Europe.

“I think President Putin can see that he is at a crossroads,” he said. “If he continues to destabilise Ukraine, there will be further sanctions, further measures. And there will be a completely different relationship between European countries and America on the one hand and Russia on the other.”

Mr Cameron said that in his meeting with Mr Putin on Saturday the Russian leader had recognised that Ukraine was a “single political space”.

US President Barack Obama said the sanctions were already having a “devastating” effect on Russia but they would continue as long as Russia did not adhere to an agreement struck in Minsk weeks ago to scale down the hostilities. “The isolation that Russia is currently experiencing will continue” unless the Minsk agreement is met, Mr Obama said.

The US President said that his meeting with EU leaders yesterday had agreed to maintain the economic pressure on Russia.

One of the Russian leader’s fiercest critics, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, reluct­antly agreed to shake Mr Putin’s hand but told him to withdraw his troops. “I guess I’ll shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you: you need to get out of Ukraine,” he said, according to spokesman Jason MacDonald.

While there were reports that Mr Putin had left the G20 summit early, his flight time of about 2pm was not as early as some.

Leaders from Mexico and Indon­esia departed on Saturday night. However, Ms Merkel stayed in Australia, arriving in Sydney last night to a ceremonial welcome hosted by Tony Abbott.

The hardening attitude to the Russian leader followed Tony ­Abbott’s threat to “shirt-front” him, a phrase that drew derision from Bill Shorten.

While the Prime Minister’s supporters saw the weekend’s devel­opments as a sign Mr Abbott’s tone had influenced events, he did not appear to have any exchanges with Mr Putin about Ukraine during the weekend. Instead, Mr Abbott put his concerns to Mr Putin in Beijing last week.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Mr Putin had been “under quite some pressure here at the G20 by a number of leaders” over the downing of MH17 and aggressive behaviour towards Ukraine.

“We should be encouraging Russia to be a responsible inter­national citizen,” she told the Ten Network’s The Bolt Report yesterday. “If it wants to be taken seriously, and if it wants to maintain its status as a significant economy, a significant nation, then it has to abide by the international norms.

“And that’s why sanctions have been imposed on Russia, because it has breached those very fundamental international norms, international laws, about respecting another nation’s sovereignty — and what it has done in illegally annexing Crimea, its invasions of the eastern part of Ukraine, are simply unacceptable.’’

The G20 communique did not mention Ukraine but noted “geopolitical tensions”.