an audience
遅刻魔として有名なロシア プーチン大統領にローマ法王も待ちぼうけをくらってしまいました。ここのaudienceは「聴衆」ではなく、「謁見」を表しますね（cf. have an audience)。（UG）
Even Pope Francis waits for President Putin
Being 50 minutes late for his first meeting with Pope Francis was nothing unusual for Russian President Vladimir Putin. That’s just the way he is—a character trait that provides some insight into his attitude toward power.
When Putin arrived on time to an audience with Pope John Paul II in 2003, the punctuality was considered a newsworthy aberration: “The President Was Not Even a Second Late,” read the headline in the newspaper Izvestia. He had been 15 minutes late for a similar audience in 2000.
The waits other leaders have had to endure in order to see Putin range from 14 minutes for the Queen of England to three hours for Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Ukrainian prime minister. Few people are as important in terms of protocol as the queen or the pope, and there is no country Putin likes to humiliate as much as Ukraine.
The typical delay seems to be about 30 minutes. Half an hour is enough in some cultures to make people mad. Koreans saw Putin’s 30-minute lateness for a meeting with their President Park Geun-hye as a sign of disrespect.
Everybody endures the wait, though. No foreign dignitary has ever canceled a meeting with Putin because of his lateness. Indeed, it seems that people have been waiting for Putin for most of his life.
