Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron during talks in the KremlinMOSCOW, Feb. 11 > French President Emmanuel Macron was separated from Russian President Vladimir Putin by a long table in the Kremlin because the French leader refused to take a PCR test for coronavirus in Moscow, an anonymous source at the Elysee Palace claims. Macron and Putin met in Moscow to discuss the situation around Ukraine in Monday. The interlocutors sat on opposite sides of a table about four meters long, which became the subject of numerous discussions in the press. In early February, at the same table, Putin held talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Obran. The Hungarian prime minister said that because of the coronavirus, the meeting was held «in an unusual format», and he «never sat at such a long table in my life.» As sources close to Macron told Reuters, the French president faced a choice: either he agrees at a PCR in Russia and he is allowed to approach Putin, or he refuses and maintains a social distance. «We understood that refusal would mean no handshakes and this long table. But we could not allow the president's DNA to fall into their hands,» the source said, explaining the reason for not testing. A second source said that Macron took a French PCR test before leaving and an antibody test done by his personal doctor after arriving in Russia.
The French Foreign Minister called the talks between Putin and Macron frank
