Russia's Foreign Affairs Minister, Sergei Lavrov, teased his Australian counterpart, Julie Bishop, in an international meeting in August, wondering when Abbott would get around to carrying out his threat.
"Is your prime minister still going to shirtfront my president?" Lavrov asked Bishop in his gravelly, heavily accented English at a meeting of foreign affairs ministers from 10 nations.
The US Secretary of State, John Kerry, jumped in. Yeah, he said, "we've been putting money on the result and we're backing Putin," he announced to some levity.
