The long table that separated Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin last Monday in the meeting in the Kremlin on the Ukrainian crisis was a necessary solution to the face-to-face between the two leaders after the French president’s refusal to undergo a molecular swab after arriving in Fly. This is what various journalistic sources who were present on Monday in the Russian capital at the meeting reveal.
The Elysée confirms that there were “timing” problems that advised Macron’s entourage to forgo the “less spacing” option that would have been possible by swabbing on arrival. No comment, however, on the reason given by some of the journalistic sources, in particular British, according to which the buffer was refused by the French so that “the president’s DNA would not end up in the hands of the Russians”.
The president “did what needed to be done as he always does when traveling, as did his entire delegation,” French presidency sources said this morning. «The question – they underline – is only that of the condition of the tampon, but these are elements that are up to the doctor to decide. We are talking about issues such as who is swabbing, how the swab is practiced, and what the requirements are imposed in terms of timing (for example, showing up well in advance for the test). We simply felt that the conditions that would have allowed a lesser distancing were not acceptable to us and we chose the other option proposed by the Russian protocol ”.