The build-up to Vladimir Putin’s recent meetings with Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz focused on how the leaders might bridge a political gulf over the Ukraine crisis. Yet it was the physical distance between them that dominated the online discourse after talks began.
At their meeting last week, Russia’s president sat his French counterpart more than 10ft away from him at the other end of a long, oval table in the Kremlin, generating mirth and memes on social media while commentators debated whether the seating arrangement was a Covid precaution or deliberate power play.
