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Bishop to step up heat on Russia

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will tackle her Russian counterpart head-on today over Moscow's imposition of trade sanctions against Australia, after Tony Abbott accused Vladimir Putin of being a bully.

Ms Bishop, who is in Burma today for the East Asia Summit, told _The Weekend West _ she would demand foreign ministers put Ukraine, the MH17 disaster and Russia's trade sanctions on the agenda.

She said Russia's decision to ban fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, milk and dairy imports from Australia, the US, the European Union, Canada and Norway was a petulant act designed to avoid accountability in Ukraine.

"Russia should take note of the international condemnation of its efforts to destabilise Ukraine and further breach its sovereignty, change course from its current trajectory and respect global norms and laws," Ms Bishop said.

"Russia's retaliatory sanctions reveal its refusal to acknowledge its aggressive and unacceptable behaviour towards its neighbours."

About 20,000 Russian troops have massed on the Ukrainian border amid intensifying fighting that forced a joint Australian-Dutch team this week to abandon a search and recovery mission at the crash site of downed Malaysia Airlines jet MH17.

Ms Bishop instructed Australia's mission to the United Nations to condemn any suggestion by Russia that it enter Ukraine as "peacekeepers" or under the guise of humanitarian need.

She and US Secretary of State John Kerry are expected to further discuss Russia when they jointly travel from Burma to Sydney for the AUSMIN meeting.

The East Asia Summit is the first time that foreign ministers from China, Russia, the US, Australia and South-East Asian nations have met since Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Mr Abbott, who checked his criticisms of Russia after the MH17 disaster in a bid to maximise the Kremlin's co-operation, yesterday warned Mr Putin "if Russia moved its forces into Ukraine, it would be considered an invasion".