A white marble table several meters long, supported by three massive legs adorned with colonnades. In the middle and for all ornament, a meager bouquet of flowers. On both sides, Emmanuel Macron and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Here is the curious setting in which the two heads of state discussed the crisis in Ukraine behind closed doors and for five hours, Monday, February 7. This table caught the attention of Internet users, who were quick to comment on it and make fun of this astonishing setting for a diplomatic tete-a-tete.
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Some, like the sovereignist presidential candidate Florian Philippotinsisted on seeing in this distance a “humiliation” for Emmanuel Macron. However, this is not a message that the master of the Kremlin wanted to send to the French president. A week earlier, the Hungarian Prime Minister, reputed to be close to Moscow, had been received under the same conditions. Viktor Orbán had “already experienced the formula”, “the distanced aperitif”while toasting several meters from Vladimir Poutine, recalls the correspondent of Radio France, Sylvain Tronchet, on Twitter.
2) Orban had also experienced the aperitif distanced after the now famous white marble table… pic.twitter.com/0tKOML7JQN
— Sylvain Tronchet (@SylvainTronchet) February 7, 2022
“I experienced it as the health protocol that they wanted to impose, but that did not bother the debate at all”, explained Emmanuel Macron to the journalists who accompanied him on the plane leaving Moscow for Kiev, at the end of this meeting.
The Russian president is indeed extremely cautious vis-à-vis the Covid-19, recalls Sylvain Tronchet on Twitter. In addition to respecting social distancing measures, Emmanuel Macron had to be tested once. This is far less than all the journalists present for the press conference, who had to carry out four PCR tests. “Neither advisers nor secretaries in the room. The two translators were in the booth”, remember Sylvain Trochet on Twitter. Only a translator “rescue” stayed “in a corner of the room”.
How could Vladimir Poutine and Emmanuel Macron, several meters apart, hear each other speak, each at one end of the table? Wouldn’t they have needed a megaphone, pretended to wonder a surfer on Twitter. “IThere were little microphones and headphones. So we heard perfectly. Emmanuel Macron assured journalists on his plane to Kiev.
— Illuminati Reptilian (@IllumiReptilian) February 7, 2022
Some Internet users have seen in this face-to-face between the two leaders a “remake” of the duel between James Bond and the big bad. In the original scene of the film never ever again dating from 1983, the secret agent 007 faces in a video game a certain Maximillian Largo and loses against him, taking an electroshock.
We know exactly how it will end. pic.twitter.com/DE6q20eZM0
— Pierre B. (@Pierre_B_y) February 7, 2022
This diplomatic confrontation has inspired others with the image of a fight of titans, where the power of superpowers made the small bouquet of flowers disappear.
По-моему так лучше. pic.twitter.com/ZDy2G35DHT
— A Ra Berlin (@A_Ra_Berlin) February 8, 2022
For this meeting, the table was indeed a necessity since, recalls Olivia Leray on franceinfo, the two statesmen dined together. On the menu, “apples dipped with langoustines, soup with five species of fish, ginger sorbet, sturgeon steak or reindeer meat”. Some remembered a meal that was not very warm, although more frank: the one between Jean Gabin and Louis de Funès in the tattooed, in 1968.
The meal can begin between the President #Putin and President Macron pic.twitter.com/A04oKciuzK
— Just Louis de Funès (@justdefunes) February 7, 2022
Between the Russian and the French, which of the two has the most weight in the negotiations? A surfer imagined that the two heads of state were playing swings.
Will Putin and Macron do face painting after? #Ukraine #pointless #lipservice pic.twitter.com/hi9agrWzmZ
—Tarquin (@Tarquin_Helmet) February 7, 2022
Even the daily Release split with a diversion of this table, stretching it even further, as a symbol of the winding road followed by the talks.
On the front page of Liberation this Tuesday:
Macron-Putin: Russian-style dialogue https://t.co/nj2k4mQp7h pic.twitter.com/nKD4wJHWjg
— Liberation (@libe) February 7, 2022
The last photomontage selected by franceinfo is not the most optimistic: each president finds himself on either side of the titanicthe liner that sank in 1912.
Прастите pic.twitter.com/7A7Y0EWfXZ
— Anton Pustovalov (@djxtrees) February 7, 2022