Apparently, in Italy it sort-of means "go f*ck yourself" (for Italian hnewers, this means "please wait" for the rest of the world).
The story tells about a soldier who once did that gesture to a car carrying some Italian politician, on their way to the West Bank.
Don't remember the rest of the story now, but it did not end well.
No, it doesn't.
It has lots of meanings but the main one could be summed up to "what?".
EDIT: This means "go fuck yourself" in Italy. That's Alberto Sordi by the way.
https://blog.ilgiornale.it/furlan/files/2018/09/Vaffanculo.j...
my experience - although based on neapolitan usage - is more WTF!?!
In UK+Ireland I don't think anybody would understand anything from that gesture (certainly to everybody I've just surveyed)
Here, "please wait" would be a palm held up flat, without the fingers/thumb spread ("stop", which would be what I'd expect at an official checkpoint) or the more polite informal version, a raised hand towards the person with index finger raised and usually with a nod (this is what I'd expect at a restaurant or an office for "I see you but I'm busy right now")
Central Europe here, I doubt this gesture would be understood here that way. The closest meaningful gesture would be demanding money (if the thumb would move along the index finger).
I would really like to know, out of curiosity, at least 1 country where it means "please wait", I've never encountered it before.