AHEAD of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron turned down a Russian Covid test.
A French insider, stated that the test needed a health procedure that was inappropriate and did not fit into the French leader’s schedule.
This is coming after claims that Macron declined to take the PCR test for fear of the Russians obtaining his DNA.
As a result, the leaders held a socially-distanced meeting on Monday.
They didn’t shake hands and sat across from each other at a four-metre-long table, prompting speculation that Putin was sending a diplomatic message.
Macron had been told to choose between accepting a Russian PCR test to get closer to Putin or abide by strict social distancing rules.
“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,” one of the sources told Reuters.
The source did not elaborate on how the Russian intelligence services could exploit Macron’s DNA.
A source at the Elysée Palace told the BBC: “The conditions imposed for the meeting to take place with no social distancing required a health protocol which were according to us unacceptable and incompatible with the president’s schedule.”
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said Russia understood France’s position and that it had no bearing on the discussions.
Another French diplomatic source told Reuters that Macron had taken a PCR test before leaving France and that his doctor had taken an antigen test once they arrived in Moscow.
“The Russians told us Putin needed to be kept in a strict health bubble,” the second source told Reuters.
However, Macron isn’t the first world leader who has been subjected to the Kremlin’s “long-table” diplomacy; on visits to Moscow earlier this year, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi were also spotted seated at a distance from Mr Putin.
Putin, who will turn 70 later this year had been granted extra precautionary steps by the Kremlin and has been administered Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.
Macron and Putin however discussed for over five hours on the tensions in Ukraine during their meeting.
In light of this, Western countries believe that Russia is contemplating an invasion of Ukraine, but Russia denies this despite massing more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s border.
The US State Department, as a result has asked Americans in Ukraine to evacuate the country immediately.
