IT took a cuddly koala to finally sink some claws into Vladimir Putin on behalf of Tony Abbott at the G20 summit.

Mr Putin was photographed cuddling a wild-eyed koala backstage at the G20 summit in Brisbane after Australia deployed the marsupials in a behind-the-scenes diplomatic effort.

After pledging to “shirt-front’’ the former KGB operative at the international talks, the Prime Minister Tony Abbott put the pair’s differences briefly aside to introduce him to a couple of koalas.

As the koala sunk his claws into President Putin’s suit, Mr Abbott seemed to be genuinely enjoying the interaction.

No stranger to using native wildlife for propaganda purposes, Mr Putin reportedly grabbed a tranquilliser pistol to subdue a tiger during a visit to a national park in 2008. Questions were later raised over the veracity of the incident.

During another visit, Mr Putin helped attach a satellite-tracking collar to a polar bear before shaking its paw and remarking “Be well.”

media_camera US President Barack Obama got in on the cuddly action by hugging a koala with Prime Minister Tony Abbott at the G20 summit in Brisbane.

World leaders including US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also tangled with the koalas backstage without incident.

Earlier, Mr Abbott’s wife Margie Abbott took G20 leaders’ partners on a tour of the Lone Pine koala sanctuary in Brisbane where Chinese President Xi Jinping’s wife Peng Liyuan and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s wife Laureen also enjoyed feeding kangaroos and meeting a group of koalas.

While former Australian federal tourism John Brown sparked controversy by describing koalas as “flea-ridden, piddling, stinking, scratching things’’ during the Hawke years, the Brisbane koala squad was impeccably behaved.