Six meters? Eight ? Ten, say some? We still do not know how big was the table around which the Russian and French presidents sat on Monday, in the Kremlin, to discuss the Ukrainian crisis.
Physical distance respected
The photos taken in this huge room, around the gigantic table, made people smile… or cringe, in a diplomatic and military context that was tense to say the least.
But why such a long table? In general, President Putin receives his counterparts at a reasonable distance, the two Heads of State being installed in two comfortable armchairs, around a low table. This was the case, recently, with the Khazak president or even with the Argentine head of state, as these photos show:
Or the large table is used, it is for a meeting bringing together more than two people, like on January 19, when Putin received the Iranian president: four people had taken place around the table:
But when the French president was photographed facing Vladimir Putin, it was just the two of them.
The Reuters agency, which quotes two relatives of Emmanuel Macron, offers a surprising explanation: the French president would have refused to submit to a Russian screening for Covid-19, after having already undergone a PCR in France, then in an antigenic in Russia, made by his personal doctor.
Presidential DNA protected?
He was therefore kept at a good distance from his Russian counterpart – like, before him, the Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, forced to toast with Vladimir Putin… seven meters from him, at the beginning of February:
But why did Emmanuel Macron refuse the Russian test? Reuters mentions security reasons: France would not have liked Russia to “have” the presidential DNA!
We knew very well that meant no handshakes and that long table. But we couldn’t accept that they got their hands on the president’s DNA.
A relative of Emmanuel Macron, quoted by Reuters
That said, a simple glass of water or a lost presidential hair is enough to collect DNA.
The Elysée also denied, this Friday, the explanation of the DNA: according to the French presidency, it is to avoid too long a delay – three hours of waiting – after the test that Emmanuel Macron has refused.
This didn’t seem acceptable to us or compatible with our schedule constraints. The president has doctors who define with him the rules acceptable or not with regard to his own health protocol
The Elysée, Friday
‘No politics there’
After Emmanuel Macron’s refusal, Vladimir Putin therefore remained at a safe distance:
The Russians told us Putin must be kept in a strict health bubble
Another close friend of Emmanuel Macron, quoted by Reuters
Result, images showing several meters between the two presidents, who exchanged more than five hours on the Ukrainian crisis. Distance which testifies, according to certain observers, to the coldness of diplomatic relations and the will of the Kremlin to mark its opposition to France and even to Europe…
The Kremlin did confirm that Emmanuel Macron did not submit to the Russian test, but denied any political effect:
There is no politics in this, it does not interfere in any way with the negotiations
Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman
Amusing diversions … against a backdrop of serious crisis
On the diplomatic level, nothing is settled yet. In the meantime, the official photos were quickly hijacked on social networks: