diff --git a/src/libcharon/plugins/vici/python/vici/protocol.py b/src/libcharon/plugins/vici/python/vici/protocol.py
index 86f6d9c15..879365188 100644
--- a/src/libcharon/plugins/vici/python/vici/protocol.py
+++ b/src/libcharon/plugins/vici/python/vici/protocol.py
@@ -18,8 +18,8 @@ class Transport(object):
     def send(self, packet):
         self.socket.sendall(struct.pack("!I", len(packet)) + packet)
 
-    def receive(self):
-        raw_length = self._recvall(self.HEADER_LENGTH)
+    def receive(self, timeout=None):
+        raw_length = self._recvall(self.HEADER_LENGTH, timeout)
         length, = struct.unpack("!I", raw_length)
         payload = self._recvall(length)
         return payload
@@ -28,11 +28,14 @@ class Transport(object):
         self.socket.shutdown(socket.SHUT_RDWR)
         self.socket.close()
 
-    def _recvall(self, count):
+    def _recvall(self, count, timeout=None):
         """Ensure to read count bytes from the socket"""
         data = b""
+        if count > 0:
+            self.socket.settimeout(timeout)
         while len(data) < count:
             buf = self.socket.recv(count - len(data))
+            self.socket.settimeout(None)
             if not buf:
                 raise socket.error('Connection closed')
             data += buf
diff --git a/src/libcharon/plugins/vici/python/vici/session.py b/src/libcharon/plugins/vici/python/vici/session.py
index 0a2a02f91..e98d10133 100644
--- a/src/libcharon/plugins/vici/python/vici/session.py
+++ b/src/libcharon/plugins/vici/python/vici/session.py
@@ -139,11 +139,19 @@ class Session(CommandWrappers, object):
                     )
                 )
 
-    def listen(self, event_types):
+    def listen(self, event_types, timeout=None):
         """Register and listen for the given events.
 
+        If a timeout is given, the generator produces a (None, None) tuple
+        if no event has been received for that time. This allows the caller
+        to either abort by breaking from the generator, or perform periodic
+        tasks while staying registered within listen(), and then continue
+        waiting for more events.
+
         :param event_types: event types to register
         :type event_types: list
+        :param timeout: timeout to wait for events, in fractions of a second
+        :type timeout: float
         :return: generator for streamed event responses as (event_type, dict)
         :rtype: generator
         """
@@ -152,7 +160,11 @@ class Session(CommandWrappers, object):
 
         try:
             while True:
-                response = Packet.parse(self.transport.receive())
+                try:
+                    response = Packet.parse(self.transport.receive(timeout))
+                except socket.timeout:
+                    yield None, None
+                    continue
                 if response.response_type == Packet.EVENT:
                     try:
                         msg = Message.deserialize(response.payload)