Vladimir Putin's meeting table

Creation of the table has been claimed by two groups: Italian manufacturer Oak Furniture, and Spanish Vincente Zaragozá.{{Cite news |last1=Burgen |first1=Stephen |last2=Giuffrida |first2=Angela |date=2022-02-17 |title=Table talk: Italian and Spanish firms vie to claim credit for Putin's furniture |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/17/table-talk-italian-and-spanish-firms-vie-to-claim-credit-for-putin-furniture |access-date=2024-07-04 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

Oak Furniture, a family-owned business from Cantù, Italy, claimed to have made the table, completing the order in 1995. This was as part of a €40-50 million deal to furnish {{Convert|7000|sqft|m2}} over floors of the Kremlin between 1995 and 1997. Oak has also created fittings for other world leaders, including Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, and royal palaces in Brunei and Thailand.{{Cite web |title=Italian craftsman claims Putin's 'unique' oversized table |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/18/italian-craftsman-claims-putins-unique-oversized-table |access-date=2024-07-05 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Balmer |first=Crispian |date=2022-02-15 |title=To Russia with love: vast Italian table in Kremlin turns heads |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-with-love-vast-italian-table-kremlin-turns-heads-2022-02-15/ |access-date=2024-07-05 |work=Reuters}} The order comprised around seventy rooms, including the residence of the president. The furniture was designed in the style of the pre-1917 Kremlin: after the Russian Revolution, president Joseph Stalin removed much of the previous furniture in the rooms. The company maintains that the tabletop is made of a single piece of beech, and that it is lacquered white; it has three hollow legs, and is gold plated. According to Renato Pologna of Oak, the furniture for the deal was assembled in Italy and transported to Russia by plane: upon arrival it was scanned to prevent bugging. Pologna estimated that a similar table would cost approximately €100,000 ({{Inflation|index=EU|value=100000|start_year=2022|r=0|fmt=eq|cursign=€}}) if built new in 2022. Oak produced a certificate signed by Yeltsin, and a photo of the table in a 1999 book on the Kremlin to support their claim.

Spanish cabinet maker Vicente Zaragozá claimed to have made it during an interview with radio station COPE. Zaragozá is owner of an eponymous furniture company located in Alcàsser, Valencian Community, which closed down in 2020. The business made several orders of furniture for the Kremlin in the years 2002-2006, as well as for other former Soviet republics, such as for the presidency of Uzbekistan. According to Zaragozá, the table is made of Alpine white beech, inlaid with gold leaf, and was delivered to the Kremlin in 2005.

File:Defense.gov News Photo 000613-D-9880W-056.jpg in 2000]]

In 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin has used the table in meetings with world leaders such as Viktor Orbán, Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz, and António Guterres, among others.{{Cite web |last=Saul |first=Derek |title=Putin's Long Tables Explained: Why He Puts Some Leaders, Including Germany's Scholz, At An Extreme Distance |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/02/15/putins-long-tables-explained-why-he-puts-some-leaders-including-germanys-scholz-at-an-extreme-distance/ |access-date=2022-04-27 |website=Forbes}}{{cite web|title=Putin breaks out the Kremlin's ridiculously long table to meet with the head of the UN|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-long-table-united-nations-chief-moscow-kremlin-2022-4|publisher=Business Insider|access-date=10 June 2022}} Putin was pictured seated at one end of a very long white meeting table, with the other participants seated far away from him at the other end. Putin has also been pictured attending similarly distanced meetings with his own officials at other long tables.{{Cite web |title=Photos: Putin keeps his distance during meetings |url=https://uk.news.yahoo.com/photos-putin-keeps-his-distance-during-meetings-194633383.html |access-date=2022-04-27 |website=uk.news.yahoo.com|date=28 February 2022 }} The table became the subject of numerous internet memes.{{cite news |title=Putin's White Table in Macron Talks Sparks Endless Memes |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/02/09/putins-white-table-in-macron-talks-sparks-endless-memes-a76300 |access-date=28 April 2022 |work=The Moscow Times |date=9 February 2022}}

It has been speculated that Putin chooses to use the long table in an attempt to intimidate and to project an image of power, or for fear of contracting COVID-19.{{Cite web |date=2022-02-08 |title=Putin's massive table: powerplay or paranoia? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/08/vladimir-putin-massive-table |access-date=2022-04-27 |website=The Guardian}}{{Cite web |title=What Putin's very long table tells us about Russia's inner workings |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/vladimir-putin-ukraine-russia-crisis-long-table-kremlin-memes-rcna16670 |access-date=2022-04-27 |website=NBC News|date=17 February 2022 }}{{Cite web |title=Thumbelina Politics: a Seat at Putin's Table |url=https://artreview.com/thumbelina-politics-a-seat-at-putin-big-table/ |access-date=2022-04-28 |website=artreview.com}} Putin has been pictured attending meetings in close proximity with Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping and Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko in the same period.{{Cite web |date=2022-02-04 |title=Xi and Putin urge Nato to rule out expansion as Ukraine tensions rise |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/04/xi-jinping-meets-vladimir-putin-china-russia-tensions-grow-west |access-date=2022-04-28 |website=The Guardian}}

== See also ==

• Public image of Vladimir Putin
• Eglantine Table
• Sea Dog Table
• US Presidential desks:
• C&O desk, Hoover desk, Johnson desk, Resolute desk, Theodore Roosevelt desk, Wilson desk

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Category:Individual pieces of furniture

Category:Tables (furniture)

Category:Internet memes related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Category:Moscow Kremlin

Meeting table

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