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  1. Just when you thought nobody could replace One Direction, Vladimir Putin has gone and done it.
  2. And he was joined in his endeavor by leaders from other G20 countries who met in Australia for a cuddle-fest thinly disguised as some sort of summit.
  3. So as the world looked towards Brisbane, some politicians found themselves mirroring the animal's body language,…
  5. …others looked on as romance blossomed,…
  7. …and some appeared to remember the years when they were young parents, trying to hold on to squirming toddlers.
  9. So what about One Direction, you ask? (Unless you're a fan, in which case feel free to skip this part and head straight for the pictures below.)
  10. Well, the band made headlines when they had their own koala summit of sorts earlier this year.
  12. This didn't just lead to a collective "Awwwwww" among fans of One Direction, cuddly koalas or any combination thereof. It also drew attention to a previously neglected animal health issue.
  14. A touching story, for sure. But nothing compared to the worldwide koalavaganza that swept social media during the G20 summit.
  15. In fact, even some journalists had trouble keeping their analytical distance. Take this tweet from Mother Jones magazine:
  17. Other media reactions included pun-laden front pages like this one.
  19. As inspiration struck, one Russian newspaper even ran an eight-line poem on the animal, imagining it as a female.
  20. "The koala didn't know whom she was hugging," it begins — then goes on to deliver barbs against Ekho Moskvy, a radio station and website known for its critical reporting on Russia's government.
  22. But when Putin decided to leave the summit early, the gathering went from fluff to farewell. Naturally, this had cartoonists wondering how the koalas must have felt.
  24. After all, the Russian president has a long history of hugging any animal that doesn't hop away fast enough.
  25. What, then, about the big-eyed, soft-furred Australian animals was not to his liking? Was it just a quick, no-strings-attached cuddle to Putin?
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