From the British Queen to his former wife, there is hardly any guest of Russian President Vladimir Putin who did not have to wait for some time ranging from a minimum of 15 minutes to long 4 hours.

In attending the latest meeting with the Pope Francis, Russian President was an hour late, a practice in which the latter is said to have become a legend.

Earlier in 2003, he was 50 minutes late for his first meeting with the Pope.

The Guardian ran a report, titled ‘Why is Vladimir Putin always late?’, on Thursday showing a list of Putin’s waiting guests that included US Secretary of States John Kerry, Ukraine’s now-ousted president Viktor Yanukovych, European or Russian leaders, and a family of plane crash victim.

‘Patience may be a virtue, but few people would keep the pope waiting. Vladimir Putin is an exception, however, with the Russian President showing up an hour late to his meeting in the Vatican on Wednesday,’ reported Guardian.

This ‘legendary’ tardiness of Putin once kept John Kerry waiting for three hours prompting him to go for a walk across the Red Square until the Russian president had showed up.

Putin was late even in his meeting with the British Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 when Her Excellency had to wait 15 minutes for the former.

Be it a high-level diplomatic meeting, or a romantic rendezvous, strongman Putin has been all the same.

His former wife complained that an hour and a half late was normal for Vladimir Putin who once had reduced her to tears by being late for a date.

As the title suggests the Guardian report tried to analyse the trend of Putin’s routine tardiness. It said, ‘His lateness varies from leader to leader, and in Putin’s term, an hour’s wait is a sign of respect.’ The report referred to Putin’s late-coming habit as ‘calibrated psychological policy’ as it is generally assumed.

However, unlike any other incident of the past, the spokesperson for the Russian president explained the reason of Wednesday’s delay in meeting the pontiff.