Tony Abbott and Vladimir Putin to be photographed apart for G20 portrait

TONY Abbott will be kept far from Russian president Vladimir Putin when the pair poses for the official G20 group portrait.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Tony Abbott talk on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in Beijing yesterday.

TONY Abbott will be kept far from Russian President Vladimir Putin when the pair poses for the official G20 group portrait in ­Brisbane at the weekend.

The Australian understands G20 organisers will choreograph the leaders’ standing positions to avoid the awkward scenes at yesterday’s APEC summit in Beijing, where Mr Abbott was placed ­directly behind the man whom he threatened to “shirt-front”.

South African President Jacob Zuma will become the first world leader to arrive in the Queensland capital when he jets into Brisbane International Airport before dawn today, to be greeted by Premier Campbell Newman.

US President Barack Obama is expected to fly into RAAF Base Amberley, west of Brisbane, on Saturday at about 7am, before being taken by helicopter to Suncorp Stadium and then the five-star Marriott Hotel in the CBD.

INTERACTIVE: G20 explained

Mr Abbott and British Prime Minister David Cameron will share a plane from Sydney to Brisbane on Friday night, after Mr Cameron addresses federal MPs in Canberra. Mr Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to fly in separately late on Friday night. A cargo plane with vehicles for the Russian leader’s motorcade touched down yesterday.

All of the world leaders will be whisked to Parliament House for the traditional “retreat” on Saturday morning, before the summit begins in earnest and Mr Obama’s speech to about 1500 students at the University of Queensland.

Mr Obama’s Marriott Hotel and Mr Xi’s Stamford Plaza were locked down and surrounded by metres-tall steel barricades yesterday. Mr Abbott’s Rydges Hotel at Southbank, the 4.5-star Novotel hotel and the inner-city Gambaro Hotel — which is host to UN officials and Myanmar President Thein Sein — will be under guard from today. More than 6000 police are on hand to protect the leaders and keep an eye on 26 registered protest groups.

Online activists yesterday urged protesters to eschew the identified groups, such as Occupy G20, and instead act as “lone wolves” to disrupt the summit.

One user shared tips on “how to spot the G20 Occupy pig”, warning undercover police would be identifiable by earpieces hidden by “floppy hats”.

Police said they would dismantle remotely operated “cameras” attached to buildings inside the Southbank restricted zone, apparently designed to project anti-G20 slogans on nearby walls.