Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in the northern Australian city of Brisbane to a scorching spring day, and a distinctly chilly reception, reports GHN based on CNN.
Putin, in Australia with other world leaders for G20 talks, stepped off his flight from Moscow to be greeted by Australia's deputy defense secretary, a junior minister in Prime Minister Tony Abbott's cabinet. Standing nearby was a much bigger political personage, Australian Attorney-General George Brandis.
Brandis made no attempt to greet the Russian leader. Not long after, though, Brandis was filmed enthusiastically welcoming Germany's Angela Merkel and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
If Putin had seen the local Courier Mail newspaper in the short limousine trip to his hotel he would have noticed a giant front page graphic of a Russian bear complete with fur cap, matching up to a boxing kangaroo, above the headline "Ice Cold War."
Inside, splashed across two pages, was quote after quote from Abbott, revealing details of his 20-minute conversation with Putin on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Beijing last week.
Abbott said he told Putin that he should stop trying to "recreate the lost glories of tsarism or the Soviet Union," and he accused Russia of stepping up its aggression, which was part of a "regrettable pattern."
Putin is clearly an isolated figure by Western leaders in particular at the two-day G20, after reports that Russian troops and heavy weapons are being sent across the Russian border to separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.
British Prime Minister David Cameron warned Russia on Friday to change its course regarding Ukraine.
Otherwise, he said, "The relationship that Britain has with Russia, that the European Union has with Russia, the relationship that I hope Australia has with Russia, will be very different."