The Russian president has been photographed and recorded several times with a huge table between him and any foreign politician.
Putin recently sat at one end of the table in Moscow, putting UN Secretary-General António Guterres on the receiving end of this strange sitting arrangement.
The massive table is around five metres long, with three independent columns supporting the surface.
But, as Dr Patrick Stewart of the University of Arkansas revealed to Express.co.uk, Putin’s choice of furnishings has a dual purpose.
One possibility, according to Dr. Stewart, is the danger of Covid infection, but another could be a more subtle indicator.
Professor Stewart stated that the length of the table and the distance between the leaders could “be more of an indicator of and emphasis on the distance between the two parties in reaching an agreement.”
When French President Emmanuel Macron visited Russia in February 2022, he was met by a similar spectacle.
A fortnight before the invasion, the French president paid a visit to the Kremlin for talks with Putin on Russia’s military buildup on the Ukrainian border.
According to sources close to the president, Mr. Macron refused to take a Russian COVID-19 test because he was concerned that Russia would retain his DNA on file.
One insder told Reuters: “We knew very well that meant no handshake and that long table. But we could not accept that they get their hands on the president’s DNA.”
Mr. Macron’s unwillingness to take a Russian-administered PCR test, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, means he’ll have to keep a six-meter distance from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He added: “There is no politics in this, it does not interfere with negotiations in any way.”
But, just days after the two presidents were photographed on opposing sides of the long table, Putin met with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, shaking hands and sitting close together.
It’s unclear whether Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kazakhstan’s president, took a Russian PCR test before the meeting.
Putin used the “long table” strategy on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, among others.
And, according to some experts, fear about 69-year-old Putin contracting COVID-19, despite reports that he has had many immunizations against the disease, plays a role in the minds of senior Kremlin officials.
The political impact of Putin’s death from the disease, or serious illness, according to Dr. Ben Noble, associate professor of Russian politics at University College London, would be a motivating factor.
He told The Independent: “Given Putin’s centrality to the functioning of the current system – which often relies more on informal connections than formal institutions – his illness poses an existential threat to its continued functioning.”
He added: “A question of personal health, therefore, becomes a question of national security, especially given uncertainty about who would actually take over if he were to become seriously (or gravely) ill.”
Whatever Putin’s motivation, the display has enraged Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky.
In a speech directed at the Russian leader, he said:
“Sit down with me to negotiate, just not at 30 meters.
“I don’t bite. What are you afraid of?”
Image Credit: Getty
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