Mr Abbott issued the strong message following a meeting between the Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Russian Ambassador Vladimir Morozov, who was called in earlier today.
“The initial response of the Russian Ambassador was to blame Ukraine for this and I have to say this is deeply, deeply unsatisfactory,” he said.
“We all know that there are problems in Ukraine. We also know who is very substantially to blame for those problems.
“The idea that Russia can somehow say that none of this has anything to do with them because it happened in Ukrainian airspace frankly does not stand up to any serious scrutiny.”
Mr Abbott described the coming days and the request for complete cooperation as a “test for Russia”.
"Hopefully the Russians will realise their whole standing in the world is at risk here," he said.
Mr Abbott ruled out making any comment regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attendance at the November G20, but said it was important that his country did not prevent a fully comprehensive investigation.
“As far as I am concerned, when you have a situation where Russian back rebels appear to have killed Australians using - it may well turn out to be - Russian-supplied heavy weaponry, Australia takes a very dim view indeed,” he said.
“We want the fullest possible investigation.”
He said Australia would act with strength.
“Based on what we’re hearing from Russia, it’s hard to have much confidence that there will be the kind of open and honest and transparent cooperation that you’d expect,” he said.
“This really is a test for Russia, how transparent and fair dinkum is it going to be. There can be no excuses, no buck passing, no blame shifting. There has to be absolute, full cooperation with an impartial, international inquiry.”
Mr Abbott confirmed the Australian toll from MH17 at 28, saying that a DFAT official had been tasked to each family group affected.
Further DFAT staff would be travelling to Kiev.
He conceded he was angry at the deaths of the 28 Australians, adding that his government wanted to take a leading role in any future investigations.
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