Vladimir Putin will lie to Tony Abbott over MH17 probe: Shorten

VLADIMIR Putin will lie to Tony Abbott over the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash probe, Bill Shorten predicts.

VLADIMIR Putin will lie to Tony Abbott about his willingness to cooperate with the investigators probing the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, Bill Shorten predicts.

The Prime Minister, who famously promised to “shirt-front” the Russian leader over the disaster, will meet Mr Putin on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Beijing this week.

Mr Abbott yesterday said he would seek Mr Putin’s personal assurance that the airline disaster would not be swept under the carpet or forgotten.

“I will speak for our dead, I will speak for our nation, I will speak for decency and for humanity in stating to the Russian president he owes it to us, he owes it to our common humanity to ensure that justice is done,” Mr Abbott said.

Mr Shorten this morning said he hoped Mr Abbott would use the meeting to “get to the bottom” of the affair, but predicted Mr Putin would not tell the truth.

“The Russians support the separatists in the Ukraine, separatists fired the missile which killed people; I don’t believe that the Russians don’t know what’s happening,” the Opposition Leader told ABC’s Insiders.

“In other words if they opened up the books and they told us what’s really going on we could get closure for a whole lot of people who are caught up in something well beyond their control with devastating consequences.

“Putin is not going to tell us the truth, but Tony Abbott has to at least ask.”

Mr Shorten said Mr Abbott’s threat to “shirt-front” Mr Putin “weakened our legitimate outrage” over the attack.

“But also I think we need to show leadership and be supporting European efforts for peace in eastern Ukraine. That at least might make some sense of a senseless barbarity,” he said.

The Melbourne-bound MH17 was shot down over separatist-held eastern Ukraine on July 17, killing 298 people including 38 Australians.

Ukraine has reported more bloody fighting, with eight of its soldiers killed in the last 24 hours, as Moscow denied claims it had sent tanks across the border.