Putin is humiliated at his own summit as President Xi keeps him waiting

Jonathan Eyal, a Russia expert at the Royal United Services Institute, told Business Insider at the time that making world leaders wait for him is "certainly... part of a power play." "There is no question that it's a political message." He added: 'Putin seems to have a very healthy respect for monarchs. The British queen, he was only late for her for 14 minutes. The king of Spain he only kept waiting for 20 minutes. On the whole, it's a sort of graduated thing that indicates more or less how seriously he takes you or how pleased he is with you." Eyal said that the longest known period he has made a world leader wait for him is four hours, an honour that goes to former German chancellor Angela Merkel. "I think that this is a backhanded compliment. Usually he could go two or three hours. The only person that was exempt from the delay was the Pope."