After PCR test refusal
Putin’s long table is also used by Scholz
2/15/2022, 6:33 p.m
A piece of furniture in the Kremlin at the reception of international heads of government is currently causing a great deal of interest. The decorated table creates a distance of six meters between Putin and his respective guest. This seating arrangement is also used by the chancellor, but Moscow denies a political reason.
He made a name for himself during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Moscow, and now also during Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit: Vladimir Putin’s oversized table. The white, ornate, six-meter-long board of the Russian head of state once again distracted from the serious content of the talks about the Ukraine crisis.
With the strange arrangement, the Kremlin refers to the Corona protocol. After Macron’s visit, countless circulated on the Internet memes and jokes about the table, in political circles there was speculation about the symbolic meaning of the great distance between the interlocutors. The Kremlin finally took a stance – quite piqued: “It has to do with the fact that some follow their own rules and don’t work with the host side,” said Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Macron refused to follow the Corona protocol.
Putin, who maintains extremely extreme 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, including Chinese President Xi Jinping. However, they had apparently agreed to a Russian PCR test. Macron refused. A French government official explained Macron’s refusal to Reuters as follows: “We know very well the importance of not shaking hands and not having a long table. But we couldn’t let that get to the President’s DNA.”
Moscow: Spatial distance not meant politically
Nevertheless, it was eagerly awaited how Scholz would fare in Moscow. After all, he too had rejected the Russian PCR test, as reported by ntv reporter Heike Boese. Government circles said cautiously that Scholz had had himself tested for Corona by a doctor from the German embassy when he arrived at the airport in Moscow. A test device was brought from Germany. Scholz and the entire delegation had to undergo three PCR tests before leaving. The Russian health authorities had been invited to be present at the test, according to the Chancellor’s environment.
Apparently, this offer was not enough to change the seating arrangement: Scholz also took a seat six meters away from Putin at the opposite end of the famous table. According to ntv information, unlike Macron, Scholz has no fear of DNA theft. Rather, it is said that international conventions are adhered to.
Moscow emphasized that the distant table placement had no political reason. The physical distance “does not affect the negotiations in any way”. So far, not only Macron and Scholz have sat at the table, which is now famous on the Internet, but also Hungarian President Viktor Orbán and even Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
During the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the beginning of February, with whom Putin is known to be politically close, the endless table was not used, but Putin chose a seating arrangement with some distance.