The French President continued to be from Putin after rejecting the Covid test
Moscow: Russia on Friday said French President Emmanuel Macron was made to sit at a very long table for his conversation with Vladimir Putin because he refused to take the Covid test carried out by the Kremlin.
The leaders sat at the opposite end of the extraordinary long table in Kremlin on Monday, when Macron came to Moscow with a mission to ease concerns about Russian invasion to Ukraine.
The desk draws a lot of online ridicule, and raised more eyebrows when Putin sat on a small table with President Kazakh, a close ally, three days later.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peksov said the decision for the subject of macron to a large table was taken after the French leader refused to take a Covid test carried out by the Kremlin medical officer.
“Talks with some held at a long table, distance (across the table) is about six meters,” said Peskov.
“It was associated with the fact that some followed their own rules, they did not work with the side of the host,” he said.
In such cases, he said, the Kremlin must take “additional sanitary protocols to protect the health of the president and guest.”
He said the decision about who experienced a long table was not politics.
“There is no politics here and this does not interfere with negotiations,” said Peskov.
He said that if the medical officer from the two sides of the diplomatic meeting worked together, “Putin communicates with his guests directly, sitting very close and shaking hands.”
A source in the Macron group told AFP that French President “did everything like he had as usual when he was traveling.”
Without entering the full detail, a French President official, who asked not to be named, confirmed that this problem had occurred over the PCR test conditions demanded by the Russia. “
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor President Orban and Iran, Ebrahim Relisi also experienced long diplomacy, made to sit in the distance from Putin when they visited earlier this year.
Putin and Orban also drink champagne while standing at the opposite end of a large carpet in the Kremlin.
The Kremlin has tried hard to protect Putin 69 years old, who is vaccinated with Sputnik V which grows in Russia, from being infected with Covid.
While social distance has been loose in many places in Moscow, old Russian leaders have been very careful with Covid.
Under the current Russian covid rules, foreigners traveling to Russia are needed to take PCR tests before flight to the country but do not need to take one on arrival.
