Paris — As French president Emmanuel Macron headed to Moscow final Monday to satisfy his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, each French and Russian officers sounded upbeat. Each side agreed on the necessity to deescalate the disaster mounting round Ukraine's borders.
Macron was assured he may persuade Putin to conform to a "historic deal" to avert battle.
However then there was the lengthy desk — the very, very lengthy desk — for 2. Macron was sat at one finish and Putin all the way in which on the different. Even when they hadn't been talking by an interpreter, they'd have wanted the earpieces simply to listen to one another.
Officers had been eager to level out that COVID-19 considerations demanded the acute degree of warning. Nevertheless, the post-meeting joint information briefing on the Kremlin additionally underlined the gap between the 2, with their lecterns spaced excess of the usually-recommended six toes aside.
The socially-distanced assembly with Macron set social media alight. Meme artists went wild — turning the desk into an ice-skating rink; a see-saw; or including Senator Bernie Sanders together with his well-known knit mittens perched within the center.
By no means thoughts that Hungary's Victor Orban, or Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, additionally had socially-distanced talks on the lengthy desk just some weeks in the past — earlier than lengthy, there have been rumors that the desk was a punishment for Macron refusing to take a Kremlin-administered COVID-19 check.
French officers refused to verify whether or not there actually had been a request for a Russian check.
Presidential sources instructed CBS Information the standard protocol preparations, with handshakes and a smaller desk, had been dominated out due to considerations concerning the still-persistent coronavirus. The sources did say that the measures first prompt by the Kremlin had been "neither acceptable nor suitable with the constraints of the agenda" of the assembly.
That prompted hypothesis that the French presidential palace, the Elysée, had been involved that the Kremlin may use a COVID check pattern to get their arms on Macron's DNA.
Official sources, exasperated on the variety of questions concerning the desk and a possible COVID check, have identified that President Macron has a medical crew that works with him to resolve on acceptable COVID measures throughout official visits.
The officers dismissed, with sardonic aptitude, the notion of considerations over potential DNA harvesting.
"No, we weren't afraid that the authorities would benefit from the chance and place a hood over the president's head and inject him within the neck with a microchip," one supply instructed reporters on Friday.
However they nonetheless wouldn't verify or deny that the French chief had refused to take a Russian COVID check.