What’s supposed to be an international economic summit devolved into a koala hugfest when US President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladmir Putin, and other world leaders spent time hugging a koala.
The koala, which is specially trained for human-hugging, posed for photos with Obama, Putin and other summit attendees. According to the Moscow Times, a Brisbane-based Koala keeper suggested dignitaries “[pretend] to be a tree.” Sounds legit, as long as your collective skin and clothing possess the hardness of tree bark. Then again, these are politicians we’re talking about.
Obama doesn’t look like he’s breaking a sweat in the photo op. But take it from a couple of Australian firefighters whose video of a man providing a stranded koala with water went viral in 2009. In a fit of self-awareness, the firefighter notes, “Watch, he’ll get hydrated and then rip the absolute f*cking sh*t out of me!”
Source: Instagram / Moscow Times