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Russian President Vladimir Putin delayed a scheduled phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump by more than an hour, drawing widespread attention on social media. The two leaders eventually spoke for an hour and a half on Tuesday, discussing the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war. However, Putin refused to agree to the 30-day ceasefire that Trump and his team had requested, offering only to limit attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, according to Bloomberg.
While the content of the conversation was significant, much of the online discourse focused on Putin’s delay, which many perceived as a deliberate power move. The Russian president was attending an event with industrialists and businessmen in Moscow right before the call. At one point, the event’s host reminded Putin of his upcoming phone appointment with Trump. Footage captured him smirking and shrugging off the remark. According to The Sun, Putin arrived at the Kremlin around 5 p.m., an hour after the scheduled start of the call.
Social media users quickly reacted to the incident, with many interpreting it as a deliberate humiliation of Trump.
“Making leaders wait is an old Putin power play. But this is pretty brutal,” one X user commented.
Another post read, “While speaking to a room full of oligarchs, the host turns to him and asks if he’s going to be late. Putin shrugs. He completely humiliated Donald Trump.”
Some saw it as a clear demonstration of Putin’s dominance in the power dynamic.
“Putin played Trump like a fiddle! Putin has no intention of a real ceasefire. He agrees to a limit on energy targets but nothing more. He also wants no military help given to Ukraine, no intelligence help, and for Ukraine to stay out of NATO,” another X user noted.
The incident further fueled debates about the balance of power between the two leaders and Putin’s strategic approach to international diplomacy.
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