Securing the meeting of the world's most powerful countries in Australia was a coup for a country that by most measures, is a relatively small member of the club of rich, powerful nations.

It also fitted well with the image that former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd tried to carve out for our nation when he declared our role as one of a ``middle power".

He declared Australia could play an important role as an international mediator, collaborator and at times leader of far larger economies and population centres.

Sadly, the increasingly macho threat to shirt-front Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin - which appears to be off-the-cuff bluster by Mr Abbott designed to appeal to a domestic audience - has instead drawn bemusement and ridicule from other world leaders.

At a time when the world's economies are faltering, the Ebola crisis is spinning out of control in west Africa, and the Islamic State is marching across borders in the Middle East, beheading foes as it goes, the internet is instead littered with memes of our prime minister bare-chested, banging up against and equally boorish image of Mr Putin.

Mr Abbott is absolutely right to take the Russian leader to task over the murky circumstances of the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine.

Let it never be forgotten that nearly 40 Australian citizens and permanent residents were among those shot out of the sky by a rocket that may have come from Russian-backed rebels.

The empty threats to block the Russian leader from attending the event in Brisbane already seem to have come to little.

With Russia's envoys and media openly mocking Australia and Mr Abbott, making any real progress on important issues such as defusing tensions in Ukraine will be made much more difficult.

Diplomacy at its best is a gentle art of persuasion, coercion and bringing others around to your way of thinking while avoiding open hostility even where differences are vast.

We can only hope that once the world's leaders have been and gone, the G20 meeting in Brisbane will be remembered for the major agreements and progress made, not the macho sideshow that is dominating the media and political discussion.