Zincwarrior
Diamond Member
Putin keeps Trump waiting on his Tuesday call, in classic power move. When you're the boss, you can do that.
Ukraine LIVE: Trump humiliated as Putin keeps US President 'waiting over an hour'
Vladimir Putin laughed off a warning that he was leaving it late for his phone call to Donald Trump. The dictator - notorious for keeping world leaders waiting - was addressing the annual congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, including the country's top bosses, in Moscow.
As the clock ticked, he appeared in no rush to get to the Kremlin for the potentially crucial phone talk with the US president. The union's leader Alexander Shokhin looked at his watch saying Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had announced the timing was before 6pm in Moscow. Reports in Russia had said the session would be between 4pm and 6pm - and it was already after 4pm.
"Don't listen to him! That's his job," replied Putin, showing no sign of wanting to leave.
"Well, I don't know. Now we need to see what Trump says about this.....," said Shokhin, a former Putin Deputy Prime Minister.
"I didn't mention Trump. I was talking about Peskov," Putin said, evidently relaxed at his lax timekeeping. Eventually, the Putin entourage left the conference venue, the Moscow International House of Music, some 20 minutes drive from the Kremlin, at approaching 5pm.
The White House confirmed that Trump and Putin had begun speaking at 2.59pm UK time, nearly two hours after the expected time.