Donald Trump was left humiliated as he waited over an hour for his phone call with Vladimir Putin. The Russian dictator was addressing the annual congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow before he laughed off a warning that he was leaving it late for his call to the US president.

Putin appeared in no rush to get to the Kremlin for the call while the union’s leader Alexander Shokhin looked at his watch. He said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had announced the timing was before 6pm in Moscow.

Putin replied: “Don’t listen to him! That’s his job.” Shokhin, a former Putin Deputy Prime Minister, said: “Well, I don’t know. Now we need to see what Trump says about this…”

Putin then said: “I didn’t mention Trump. I was talking about Peskov,” as he seemed relaxed at his lax timekeeping. The Putin entourage eventually left the conference, which was held at the Moscow International House of Music, some 20 minutes drive from the Kremlin, at around 5pm.

The White House has since confirmed that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump had begun speaking at 2pm UK time. It was originally scheduled for between 1pm and 3pm.

The seeming power play is not a new tactic for Putin. The dictator is notorious for keeping world leaders waiting, with US envoy Steve Witkoff left waiting for hours to meet him last week.