Russian President Vladimir Putin meets privately with Eton College students

MOSCOW, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- A group of students from Britain's elite boarding school Eton College had an exclusive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, beating out business leaders and heads of state vying for the elusive president's attention.

The 11 students from Eton met with Putin in the same room he receives world leaders, wearing translation headphones to communicate freely about world affairs. Putin is notoriously hours late for most meetings and often hard to pin down for appointments The students beat newly appointed British Prime Minister Theresa May to their first meeting, which is expected to take place in China next week.

David Wei, one of the students at the meeting, said it took "10 months, 1,040 emails, 1,000 text messages, countless sleepless nights, constant paranoia during A2 exam season, declining academic performance" to get the meeting.

Trenton Bricken, another student at the meeting, said of Putin, "He was small in person but not in presence." Putin stands at 5-foot-7.

Russian Orthodox priest Father Tikhon, the vicar bishop of Moscow, spoke at Eton earlier this year, and helped arrange the meeting, TASS reported Thursday.

Eton College, founded in 1440, has educated 19 British prime ministers. The school said the meeting was "a private visit by a small group of boys organized entirely at their own initiative and independently of the college."