French President Emmanuel Macron was in Moscow on Monday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Many people believe the meeting is important and will lead to de-escalation around Ukraine.
The presidents began to speak as two lights shone down on them. At that moment, a surprise guest threw the spotlight away from everything else: an enormous marble table separating them.
Macron may not have been the first leader to sit at this table, but he is the same one Putin met last week. The two sat alone, without their advisers or secretaries, trying to bridge differences on a large piece of furniture with two translators in a booth.
According to France 24, the distance between them can be attributed to “the restrictions that Putin has imposed on his surroundings.” An AFP journalist tweeted that “all journalists attending the final press conference underwent four PCR tests, the last one upon arrival at the Kremlin. Emmanuel Macron was given a favor: he was only subject to one of them.” Eliseisky stated via Twitter that “it is tested very regularly.”
Many people noticed the lack of proximity or coldness between these two figures. From images of them standing at a long distance to memes referring to the “lack of closeness” or “coldness” between them, there was no shortage of comments. These representations spread on social media, especially on Twitter where some users have tried to compare Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden with TV shows, ads, and movies.
