Vladimir Putin kept Donald Trump waiting for a whole hour ahead of today's crunch call to discuss efforts to end Russia's onslaught against Ukraine, it has been revealed.
The Russian President even laughed when he noticed he was getting late for the crunch talks as he claimed that Western dominance was "slipping away".
Before the meeting with Donald Trump, Putin was addressing industrialists and businessmen at a national event in Moscow.
The national conference was scheduled in ahead of the Ukraine crunch talks were due to take place between 4pm and 6pm Russian local time.
REUTERS
Putin appeared in no hurry to return to the Kremlin and hop on the phone with the 47th US President.
Putin ally and event host Alexander Shokhin checked his watch and alerted the President that the call would be held soon.
Seemingly unconcerned, Putin joked: "Don't listen to him! That's his job."
The Russian President was seemingly referring to the Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Shokhin responded: "Now we need to see what Trump says about this."
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The call, which centres around Trump's efforts to bring a ceasefire to Ukraine, reportedly began an hour after it was originally pencilled in.
Ahead of the call, Putin said that Western dominance was "slipping away" and even slammed the G7.
He added that the G7 is too small to view "on a map", warning business chiefs to remain sceptical of Western companies.
“Even if there is a gesture from the other side, like they suggest lifting or easing something, you can expect they will find another way of pressing down, to throw a spanner in the works,” Putin said.
REUTERS
Before the call began, Trump also said that he believed he had a "very good chance" of persuading Putin into accepting the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine.
Today's call comes just one week after Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky accepted the deal.
The US President added that he expected to address the division of territory and "power plants" in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Putin looks set to demand the pause of all weapons deliveries to Ukraine during the ceasefire.
