Putin upsets Erdoğan by making him wait for meeting: Report

Nerdun Hacıoğlu - MOSCOW

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, listens to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as they meet each other during the opening ceremony of the 2015 European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan, Friday, June 12, 2015. AP Photo

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was visibly upset when his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin made him wait for several minutes for a recent meeting in Baku, a senior correspondent has reported in Russian daily Kommersant.

Erdoğan and Putin met in Baku on June 13 when they visited the Azerbaijan capital for the opening of the European Games. 

“The meeting was to be held in the hotel where Erdoğan was staying. Erdoğan and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu entered the meeting room on time, but not even one person from the Russian delegation was there yet,” Kommersant reporter Andrei Kolesnikov wrote.

According to Kolesnikov, Erdoğan waited for several minutes and was about to leave the hall “with a sulky face,” but Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov then entered and saved the day. 

“I have learned that Putin had not even left his hotel yet at that time,” the reporter wrote, suggesting that this was the reason why Erdoğan appeared upset while later posing for photos with Putin. 

Putin, who previously admitted that one of his bad habits was being late for appointments, also made Pope Francis wait for over an hour before their meeting last week. Back in 2012, then Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich also had to wait for Putin for four hours, after the Russian leader reportedly ran into a group of his motorcycling friends on the way.