Tony Abbott tells Vladimir Putin to keep out of Ukraine, while ministers indicate exports of uranium to Russia may be stopped

Tony Abbott has described Russia as a “bully” and threatened to increase Australia’s sanctions after Moscow imposed its own sanctions on western countries. Those measures could include restricting uranium sales, the government said on Saturday.

In a forceful intervention on Friday, the Australian prime minister said the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, would become an “international outcast” if he sent Russian troops into Ukraine and said such action would be regarded as “an invasion”.

“Russia has been a bully; Russia is a big country trying to bully a small country,” Abbott said in Sydney.

“Right at this moment, Russian forces are massing on the border with Ukraine. If there is any movement by Russian forces across the border, it won’t be a humanitarian mission, it will be an invasion. It will be an invasion.

“I say to President Putin that if he wants to be regarded as a world leader, as opposed to becoming an international outcast, hold your forces back. Stay behind the border, let the business of Ukraine be sorted out by Ukrainians.”

The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, has indicated that banning uranium sales is on the table and on Saturday the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, told Sky News this was under consideration.

“We are considering what other action we can sensibly take in terms of further increasing the level of sanctions imposed on Russia and all these matters … will be part of a proper and considered discussion before we make a decision,” Cormann said.



Russia’s move to impose sanctions on Australia and other western countries was in retaliation to the US and EU sanctions against some its banks and individuals.



Sanctions may be on the agenda when the prime minister travels to the Netherlands on Monday to meet with his Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte, and sign the condolence book for Dutch victims of flight MH17.

The Russian response covers foodstuffs from the US, 28 EU countries, Canada, Norway and Australia. Australian exports of goods and services to its 31st largest trading partner were worth $901m in 2013, primarily in meat, butter and live animals, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The Russian food and drink market was worth €12.2bn to Europe in 2013. It is the EU’s second largest buyer.

In the wake of the shooting down of flight MH17 the US and EU stepped up punitive measures against Russia, cutting off some key banks from European capital markets. A number of billionaire Russians, thought to be close to Putin and linked to the annexing of Crimea, were also earlier sanctioned.

In response, Putin told his officials on Wednesday to come up with a list of agricultural produce and materials which the country imported from the western nations named, and ban them.

Abbott said he did not want to “minimise” the impact of Russia’s sanctions on Australian business, but “in the great scheme of Australia’s agricultural exports, these are relatively small amounts”.

He indicated that Australia was “working towards stronger sanctions” against Russia.

Abbott had previously indicated a toughening of Australia’s existing sanctions was not a priority while Australian Federal Police personnel were in Ukraine for the recovery of the remains of the 38 Australian citizens and residents who were on the doomed plane.

On Friday, Abbott said: “I didn’t want to change the level of our sanctions while we had personnel on the ground within 20 or 30km of the Russian border but now that our personnel have withdrawn from the site, you will find increased sanctions by Australia.

“The way to avoid increased sanctions is for Russia to call off what appears to be in preparation, for Russia to respect the independence of Ukraine, to stop interfering in the affairs of Ukraine, to stop supporting separatists in Ukraine, to stop arming separatists in Ukraine.

“I hope very much that President Putin will step back from the brink, because any attempt by Russia to move its forces across the border would not be a humanitarian mission, it would be an invasion. It would be utterly unacceptable and certainly it will spark a response including a response from Australia.”

The deputy opposition leader, Tanya Plibersek, said it was “extraordinary” for Russia to punish Australia’s primary production sector and farmers when it seemed they were supporting and supplying separatists who allegedly shot down a plane carrying Australians.

However Putin’s decision did not mean he should be banned from the G20 leaders meeting in November, Plibersek said, as has been called for by some state premiers. “Sometimes the best way to do that is to have someone in the room to say it to their face,” she told the Nine Network.

Russia’s prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, said the ban would last for a year and that Russian leaders were still considering banning western airlines from the country’s airspace.

“I am sure that our market will be filled with fresh quality Russian products, which anyway many Russians prefer to the imported ones,” he said on Wednesday.

Noel Campbell, president of the Australian Dairy Farmers and chairman of the Australian Dairy Industry Council, told Guardian Australia the industry was less concerned with the loss of the Russian exports than the possibility that 500,000 tonnes of European produce will be diverted from Russia onto the global market.

“We currently send about 22,000 tonnes of product into Russia, which is mainly butter, and last year it was worth $110-112m,” Campbell said.

“Our concern is more about the effect of all that [EU] product coming on to the world market, because it’s got to be placed somewhere.”

The National Farmers’ Federation’s general manager of policy, Tony Maher, was also concerned about the effect of flooded markets for the wider farming sector.

“It is a concern but we won’t know until the ramifications play out what impact that will have,” he said. “That product has to go somewhere, then it’s likely to have an impact on global supply and prices.”

He said the sector was looking to the government to secure free trade agreements - particularly with China - to provide stability and reliability to the industry.

“We export about two thirds of what we produce in Australia. Our concern is related to any disruption in the export market,” said Maher, adding that around $400m of Australia’s $38bn in farm exports go to Russia.

“In the scheme of things, Russia is a developing market, which we obviously want to continue to develop but it’s not the size of Japan or Korea in terms of magnitude. But that’s not to say that we’re not concerned.”

Russia’s agriculture minister, Nikolai Fyodorov, said more Brazilian meat and New Zealand cheese would be imported to replace the sanctioned produce.