Erdogan Made Putin Wait 50 Seconds in Front of Cameras

Turkish media has drawn attention to the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin was forced to wait for his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Tehran before bilateral negotiations.

Putin had to wait for about 50 seconds for Erdogan, prompting Turkish media to draw parallels with the Russian leader, who often delays meetings with various partners, including Erdogan, causing them to wait.

A video released by the Turkish presidential office shows Putin standing by his chair and between two national flags, waiting for the meeting. Once Erdogan arrived, Putin opened his arms, greeting him.

“Hello, how are you? Good?” Erdogan said as the leaders smiled and shook hands.

The media compared the situation to other instances where Putin made world leaders wait, particularly in 2020 in Moscow, when Erdogan had to wait nearly two minutes before the Russian leader joined their meeting. The Turkish T24 site posed the question: “Was this revenge?”

Meanwhile, Andrei Kolesnikov from Kommersant wrote that Erdogan's delay was due to his meeting with the press secretary of the Russian leader, Dmitry Peskov. “...And now I can state that Mr. Putin, who entered a few seconds before the Turkish president, was standing and waiting for him in the negotiation room, but he was nowhere to be found. Who knew that Mr. Erdogan would meet Dmitry Peskov in the corridor? The Turkish president had already walked past him but turned back and spoke to him in Turkish.”

“I haven’t seen you for a long time...” Peskov later apologized, slightly embarrassed. Meanwhile, the Russian president stood uncomfortably for three minutes in front of the cameras.