Did Macron get the long table treatment because he refused a Russian COVID test?
Paris — As French president Emmanuel Macron headed to Moscow last Monday to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, both French and Russian officials sounded upbeat. Both sides agreed on the need to deescalate the crisis mounting around Ukraine's borders.
Macron was confident he could persuade Putin to agree to a "historic deal" to avert war.
But then there was the long table — the very, very long table — for two. Macron was sat at one end and Putin all the way at the other. Even if they hadn't been speaking through an interpreter, they would have needed the earpieces just to hear each other.
Officials were keen to point out that COVID-19 concerns demanded the extreme level of caution. However, the post-meeting joint news briefing at the Kremlin also underlined the distance between the two, with their lecterns spaced far more than the usually-recommended six feet apart.
The socially-distanced meeting with Macron set social media alight. Meme artists went wild — turning the table into an ice-skating rink; a see-saw; or adding Senator Bernie Sanders with his famous knit mittens perched in the middle.
Never mind that Hungary's Victor Orban, or Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, also had socially-distanced talks at the long table just a few weeks ago — before long, there were rumors that the table was a punishment for Macron refusing to take a Kremlin-administered COVID-19 test.
French officials refused to confirm whether there really had been a request for a Russian test.
Presidential sources told CBS News the usual protocol arrangements, with handshakes and a smaller table, were ruled out because of concerns about the still-persistent coronavirus. The sources did say that the measures first suggested by the Kremlin were "neither acceptable nor compatible with the constraints of the agenda" of the meeting.
That prompted speculation that the French presidential palace, the Elysée, had been concerned that the Kremlin might use a COVID test sample to get their hands on Macron's DNA.
Official sources, exasperated at the number of questions about the table and a potential COVID test, have pointed out that President Macron has a medical team that works with him to decide on acceptable COVID measures during official visits.
The officials dismissed, with sardonic flair, the notion of concerns over potential DNA harvesting.
"No, we were not afraid that the authorities would take advantage of the opportunity and place a hood over the president's head and inject him in the neck with a microchip," one source told reporters on Friday.
But they still would not confirm or deny that the French leader had refused to take a Russian COVID test.