Putin-Abbott encounter at APEC in Beijing

VLADIMIR Putin will meet Tony Abbott on the sidelines of an APEC summit in Beijing next week, the Kremlin says.

Scaffolding work at the Brisbane Convention Centre for the G20. Picture: Marc Robertson

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin will meet Tony Abbott on the sidelines of an APEC summit in Beijing next week, the Kremlin said overnight.

The Prime Minister, who fam­ously promised to “shirt-front” Mr Putin, had said earlier this week that he would meet him one way or the other, either in Beijing or in Brisbane for next weekend’s G20 leaders meeting.

But last night Mr Putin’s top foreign policy adviser, Yury Ushakov, told reporters: “Australians turned (to us) with an official request for a meeting during an APEC summit and we are agreeing to such a meeting in China.

“It will be short.’’

Meanwhile, the barricades are about to go up as Brisbane braces for the ­arrival of world leaders, headed by US President Barack Obama, and the biggest lockdown the country has seen.

The venue of the G20 summit, the Brisbane Convention and ­Exhibition Centre, will be sealed off with a 2m-high non-climb fence, as will the hotels where the leaders and their delegations are staying.

After the rioting that marred the 2010 G20 in Toronto and the London meeting in 2009, Assistant Commissioner Katarina Carroll of the Queensland Police Service has warned of an “extraordinarily tight security overlay’’ for the prime ministers and presidents who are due to arrive next Thursday.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has appealed for people not to boycott the CBD and make it a “ghost town’’, but the scale and intensity of the security will surpass that of previous big events, including the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

Ms Carroll, who is co-ordinating the operation, warned that photographs of known troublemakers could be circulated to the 6000 state police who have been mobilised, along with a 600-strong Australian Federal Police contingent and 1000 soldiers.

Two people have already been banned from the summit precinct under special laws for the G20, including Peter Hore, who lives in Newcastle, NSW, and has a history of disrupting public events; and a person from Queensland.

Additional reporting: AFP