When asked what will be remembered from the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and French Head of State Emmanuel Macron on Monday in Moscow, in many cases this answer will certainly come up: the table. The white, decorated endless board, on which Putin placed Macron at a safe distance of six meters, noticeably distracted from the serious content of the conversation about the Ukraine crisis.
Countless memes and jokes about the table circulated on the Internet, and the arrangement raised questions in political circles. Apparently the Kremlin and the Élysée Palace felt compelled to make an explanation.
“Some follow their own rules”
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov justified the great distance between the two heads of state on Friday with the Kremlin’s Corona protocol. Macron refused to undergo a PCR test in Russia, Peskov said. “Some follow their own rules. But in this case, a health protocol will be applied to protect the health of our President and that of his guest,” the Kremlin spokesman said.
The procedure has no political reason, emphasized Peskow. The physical distance “does not affect the negotiations in any way”. It had previously been speculated whether the distance was intended to symbolize Putin’s cool attitude toward Macron.
Putin, who maintains strict measures to protect against the corona virus, has also allowed some foreign heads of state and government to get closer to him in recent weeks. However, they had apparently agreed to a Russian PCR test.
France has ‘chosen the other option’
Macron refused. The Russian conditions, which would have allowed a closer conversation between the two heads of state, would have imposed a health protocol “that we found neither acceptable nor compatible with the constraints of our agenda,” the Élysée said. “We opted for the other option proposed by the Russian protocol.” After all, Macron was tested by his personal doctor in the Kremlin.
Memes about “the last supper”
The strange scene at the endless table was a godsend for many Internet users. Memes – i.e. satirically composed and virally distributed content – flooded the Russian online world in particular. In one picture, the giant table became a table tennis table, with the two heads of state holding the appropriate rackets in their hands. In another meme, the creators seated the participants of the famous painting “The Last Supper” at the table with Putin and Macron.
Incidentally, Macron was not the only one who had to sit down at the six-meter table. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi also held their talks with Putin there. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is expected in Moscow on Tuesday. The question is how distant this meeting will be.