French President Emmanuel Macron was made to sit at an extremely long table for his talks
with Vladimir Putin because he refused to take a Kremlin-performed Covid test.
The leaders sat at opposite ends of an unusually long table in the Kremlin on Monday, when
Macron came to Moscow with a mission to disarm the fears of Russian invasion in Ukraine.
The table drew a great deal of online ridicule on social media platforms and raised many
eyebrows when Putin sat at a tiny table with the Kazakh president, a close ally, three days later.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peksov said the decision to subject Macron to the huge table was
taken after the French leader refused to take a Covid test performed by the Kremlin’s medics.
He said the decision on who is subjected to the long table is not political.
“There is no politics here and this in no way interferes with negotiations,” Peskov said.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi were also subjected
to the long-table diplomacy, made to sit at a distance from Putin when they visited earlier this
year.
Putin and Orban also drank champagne while standing at opposite ends of a large carpet in the
Kremlin.
The Kremlin has gone to extreme lengths to protect 69-year-old Putin, who is vaccinated with
Russia’s domestic Sputnik V, from being infected with Covid.
While social distancing has been lenient in many places in Moscow, the long-time Russian
leader has been extremely careful with Covid. Keeping the protocols strict.
Under Russia’s current Covid rules, foreigners traveling to Russia are required to take a PCR
test before a flight to the country but do not have to take one on arrival
