LIVE: Election 2025 – Russia sends brutal four-word warning to Albo and Dutton as tensions build over military base on Australia’s doorstep

Valdimir Putin’s man in Jakarta has fired a warning to Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton over their opposition to a proposed Russian military base in Indonesia.

The prospect of Russian aircraft operating out of Indonesia’s Biak Island, just 1300km from Darwin, sent shockwaves through the federal election campaign last week.

Mr Albanese accused the Opposition Leader of ‘verballing’ the Indonesian President after Mr Dutton claimed that Indonesian President had confirmed reports that Russia wanted to fly aircraft out of the country.

Mr Dutton was later forced to apologise for the comments but warned that Russia’s ‘closeness’ with Indonesia was ‘concerning’.

But now Moscow’s ambassador in Jakarta, Sergei Tolchenov, has accused both leaders of trying to out-do one another by dialling up the anti-Russian rhetoric ahead of the election.

‘It is clear that the leaders of the two main political parties, replacing each other in power and calling it democracy, are now trying to outdo each other, heating up the situation,’ he wrote in a letter to the Jakarta Post.

‘They stop at nothing, and the time has come to play the so-called “Russian card”.

‘This means to show to overseas mentors who is more anti-Russian and Russophobe.’

But then the Russian diplomat, quoting directly from Trump’s now-infamous altercation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House, issued an ominous warning: ‘You have no cards’.

He is warning that whoever wins on May 3, they should not stand in Russia’s way.

Read more about Moscow’s play for a military base in Indonesia below:

Anthony Albanese has repeatedly claimed he was the ‘first leader in the world’ to respond to Donald Trump’s punitive tariffs.

But Daily Mail Australia highlighted how he was in fact the second world leader to respond, after Sweden’s Prime Minister beat him by around 12 minutes.

Senator James Paterson, the Coalition’s campaign spokesperson, said it was a ‘bizarre boast’ for Mr Albanese to make in the first place.

‘It’s even worse now it appears it was wrong,’ Mr Paterson told this publication.

‘Anthony Albanese should come clean: did he deliberately lie to cover up his weakness standing up for Australia or is he just not across the details of an important issue of national interest yet again?’

But now the PM has tried to pour cold water on our story while repeating his claim to have been the first leader to respond.

Mr Albanese was criticising Peter Dutton on Monday morning, claiming he ‘always shoots from the hip’. ‘This is the same person who after the United States administration made its tariff announcement – I was up before 8:30am that morning,’ he told reporters.

‘I was the first world leader to make a statement. I do note that I read somewhere that someone in Sweden tweeted: not quite the same thing, with respect.

‘I made a consistent, coherent statement of Australia’s position at that time calling it an act of economic self-harm, and outlining the measures that Australia has put in place to protect our national interests.’

You can make up your own mind about who was first to respond by reading the below story: