TWIDDLING HIS THUMBS

Vladimir Putin Left Awkwardly Waiting by Chinese President Xi Jinping

The Russian leader shuffled his feet as he anticipated the arrival of his Chinese counterpart at a BRICS summit photo-op.

Russian President Vladimir Putin awkwardly stood alone and waited, on camera, for his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to arrive for a photo-op at a BRICS summit hosted in Putin’s own country. After arriving to a Xi-less room, Putin shuffled his feet in front of the Chinese and Russian flags for a few painful seconds until the other world leader showed up, whereupon Putin broke into a smile and shook his hand. Putin intended for the five-country summit in Kazan to be an opportunity to show the world that the West’s efforts to isolate Russia over its war with Ukraine had failed. The embarrassing moment, however, undercuts some of his bravado—and it’s not the first time another world leader has left Putin twiddling his thumbs. Last year, he tidied up pens and papers on a table as he waited to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi during the Russia-Africa summit. And in 2022, he waited in front of a room full of reporters for almost a minute before he met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.