Vladimir Putin’s first trip outside the former Soviet Union since the start of the Ukraine war was supposed to project power. Instead the Russian president appears to have been left red-faced at a summit in Iran this week after his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, left him waiting in front of the TV cameras.
For almost a minute, the man who started Europe’s bloodiest conflict in decades didn’t know where to look as he waited, shifting awkwardly on his feet and pressing his tongue into his cheek, with only the click of camera shutters cutting through the excruciating silence.
The irony of the encounter hasn’t been lost in Turkey, where commentators are openly speculating that it amounts to payback. Two years ago, on a visit to the Kremlin, Erdoğan was stood up for close to two minutes before Putin arrived for bilateral talks.
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