Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey ignored Vladimir Putin Wednesday at a summit in Iran, leaving him fidgeting in front of the cameras.
For the first time since he authorised the assault of Ukraine back in February, the Russian president was having face-to-face conversations with his closest ally in Tehran on Tuesday.
He was forced to wait for a nerve-wracking 48 seconds in front of the world’s media, though, because Erdogan was late for a photo opportunity that involved shaking hands.
Putin’s detractors claimed that the apparent snub left him feeling “humiliated and insulted,” while others claimed it demonstrated how dramatically his standing had declined since the war.
Following a meeting in 2020, Putin left Erdogan waiting in front of the cameras for about two minutes.
The foreign minister of Ukraine’s Anton Gerashchenko said: “Erdogan made Putin wait throughout the meeting in Tehran.”
The Führer’s visage displays the whole range of his humiliated and insulted feelings.
With such a face, the bunker is undoubtedly the finest location to remain.
Senior correspondent Joyce Karam for The National in the UAE continued, saying: “Those 50 seconds that Erdogan made Putin wait, looking frazzled in front of cameras, show plenty about how much has changed after Ukraine.”
In order to examine the security situation in Syria, Putin and Erdogan met in Tehran on the margins of a trilateral conference with Iranian authorities.
As Erdogan worked to mediate a solution that would see Putin release millions of tonnes of grain held up in Ukraine’s ports to prevent a worldwide food crisis, the war was at the top of the agenda for the Turkey-Russia talks.
In addition to being the first face-to-face meeting between Putin and Erdogan since the invasion, this was also the first time a NATO country’s leader had a meeting with Russia.
Turkey has attempted to take a cautious middle ground on Ukraine despite having a number of significant agreements with Russia, including ones involving arms and nuclear power.
However, tensions arose recently as Erdogan abandoned his objections to Finland and Sweden joining NATO, opening the way for their membership.
Putin has publicly stated that he has no objections to either country joining, but the Kremlin is rumoured to be incensed.
Putin said that “progress” had been achieved in the talks for transferring grain from Ukraine after the meeting.
But he said that the likelihood of such a deal being approved depended on how far the West was prepared to budge on sanctions.
“We will make it easier for Ukrainian grain to be exported, but we are working under the assumption that all air delivery restrictions for Russian grain exports would be abolished,” he said.
Putin, who came at the meetings appearing to stumble and with his arm hanging limp, has not received much positive news as a result of the summit.
It’s not the first time he’s acted unwell; many have seen him awkwardly fidget with his feet or compulsively chew his lip during meetings.
Many people believe that Putin, 69, has Parkinson’s disease or a cancerous condition.
His health has been the subject of rumours since the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago, but they have exploded since the war in Ukraine.
Since being isolated by the West as a result of the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been compelled to deepen ties with fellow pariah-state Iran.
Despite the fact that they have previously worked together on a few topics, most notably Syria, their partnership has thus far been one of convenience rather than friendship.
But that has significantly changed in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, with reports that Russia is already purchasing Iranian combat drones for the conflict.
In a meeting with Putin on Tuesday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei also expressed his unwavering support for the conflict in Ukraine, reaffirming Moscow’s position that the invasion was essential to prevent a NATO strike.
The West opposes a “independent and strong” Russia, according to Khamenei, and would have “waged a war” to reclaim the Crimean peninsula that Putin took in 2014.
Khamenei said to Putin, “If the route had been open to NATO, it will not recognise any limit and boundaries.”
Iran and Russia, however, warned Turkey of a proposal to re-invade northern Syria in an effort to build a buffer zone along its border, a sign of the difficult relations between the three countries.
Ankara supports the proposal because it wants to push Kurdish militants, whom it regards as terrorists, out of northern Syria, where they have taken over vast swaths of the country after helping US-led coalition forces drive out ISIS.
In addition, Turkey plans to use the area to shelter the millions of refugees who have fled the area since civil conflict broke out in 2011.
Iran, which supports proxy organisations in Syria and has clandestine military facilities there, as well as Russia, which has played a major role in supporting dictator Bashar al-Regime, Assad’s are vehemently opposed.
In the end, it appeared like Iran and Russia had prevailed because the trio released an united statement pledging to resolve the conflict “through political and diplomatic methods.”
After the invasion of Ukraine, many people will question the sincerity of the allies’ commitment to upholding “the sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity” of Syria.