NEW YORK (Dagbladet): Ukraine crisis continues. On Friday night, US President Joe Biden warned Americans in Ukraine that they should leave Ukraine immediately for fear of Russian military attacks on the country.
Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin in a diplomatic attempt to de-escalate the situation.
Asking Americans to leave Ukraine now
The picture from there, however, attracted a lot of attention. The two heads of state sat at an extremely long meeting table of about four meters. It was both ridiculed and interpreted as Putin wanting to keep a diplomatic distance or humble Macron.
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Denied test
The reason, however, is that Macron refused to take a Russian coronate test when he arrived at the meeting. Thus, the Russians chose to place them so far apart, two sources in Macron’s entourage state Reuters.
The Russians are said to have said that Macron had to carry out a PCR test carried out by the Russian authorities in order for the two heads of state to sit closer to each other. This was denied by the French president.
Useful – despite the ridicule
– We knew very well that it meant that there was no handshake and that it was the long table. But we could not accept that they got a claw in the president’s DNA, say the sources to the news agency.
They also state that Macron took a PCR test before leaving France and an antigen test when he was in Russia. This was done by the Frenchman’s own doctor.
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Five hours
The Kremlin has not yet commented on the information.
The Russians told us that Putin had to be kept in a strict health bubble, says one of the sources to Reuters.
The meeting lasted for five hours, and the two heads of state are also said to have eaten dinner at a good distance.
Afterwards, Putin said that Macron came up with several good proposals to resolve the crisis. Macron, for his part, was also optimistic.
“Hold on, my beauty”
Close to another president
He was the first Western leader to face Putin since the Ukraine conflict escalated in December.
On Thursday, three days after Macron and Putin met at a good distance, Putin received Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The two shook hands and sat close together, only separated by a small table.
SMALLER TABLE: The table was smaller when Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) was visited by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Thursday. Photo: Mikhail Klimentyev and Mikhail KLIMENTYEV / Sputnik / AFP
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On Thursday, representatives of Ukraine and Russia also met for formal talks in Berlin, with envoys from Germany and France as mediators. The meeting ended without concrete results, writes NTB.
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