President Vladimir Putin today discussed the MH17 plane crash with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on the sidelines of an APEC summit, with both leaders favouring a "genuine" probe of the tragedy, the Kremlin said.
"Both Abbott and Putin spoke in favour of a genuine investigation for the reasons for this catastrophe, speeding up this investigation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by the state news agency RIA Novosti.
Abbott had vowed ahead of the talks that the conversation would be "robust." Asked if Abbott managed to "shirtfront" the Russian leader over the issue, as he had promised last month, Peskov said: "It appears that he did not try." "Shirtfront" is an Australian Rules Football term in which a player charges an opponent.
