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Putin's preposterously long table at Kremlin dwarfed by gigantic table at a summit he attended in Turkmenistan

An image of a very long table, at which Putin and the heads of state of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan were seated.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin was spotted in official photos seated at one end of a ridiculously huge table, along with the heads of state of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Office of the President of Russia
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Russian President Vladimir Putin met with fellow heads of state on Wednesday at a massive table in Turkmenistan that dwarfed a comically long table at the Kremlin that previously captured global attention.  

Meeting with the leaders of Turkmenistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan, Putin sat far from other leaders at a massive rectangular table as they discussed cooperation in the Caspian Sea region, the Kremlin said. 

According to the Turkmenistan government, the 6th Caspian Summit was held at the "luxurious Arkadag Hotel."

But before the meeting took place in what Turkmenistan's foreign affairs ministry referred to as the "Large Conference Hall," there was a more intimate meeting at the hotel's "Small Conference Hall."

 

An image of Putin and the presidents of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan seated around a huge round table.
The sixth Caspian Summit featured not one, but two large meeting tables. The second, while far more understated, was still of an above-average size for a meeting table.  Office of the President of Russia
An image of an incredibly huge table at the 6th Caspian Summit, where Putin and the presidents of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan were seated.
The table at the sixth Caspian Summit was so huge that Putin himself — seated on the far end —can hardly be seen in some official photos..  Office of the President of Russia

It didn't take long for photos of the large rectangular table to make the rounds on social media.

Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to Ukraine's internal affairs minister, tweeted a photo of the table underneath a significantly smaller table used by heads of state at this week's G7 summit in Germany.

Various journalists also tweeted their thoughts and made jokes about the table.

This isn't the first time Putin has sat at above-average-sized tables for meetings, but the one in Turkmenistan certainly dwarfs the others. 

He previously met with French President Emmanuel Macron in February at a 13-foot-long table in Moscow, and the Kremlin broke out the same table for a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres a few months later. 

Russian state media even broadcast Putin meeting with other world leaders at a "long but round" table in May — a step away from the long one. 

The New York Times previously reported that Putin may be obsessed over his health and safety — especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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Cheryl Teh
Cheryl is the senior news editor for Business Insider’s Asia bureau in Singapore. She and her team cover global business and tech news, including AI, consumer and workplace trends, and military technology. She frequently speaks to international media about top news stories — please email her for bookings.As a writer, Cheryl's interests include the business of nerdworld and K-pop. She covers crews such as Critical Role and Dimension 20, new releases in mobile and video gaming, and the artists, fandoms, and business trends shaping the K-pop industry.
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Jake Epstein
Jake Epstein is a defense correspondent in London for Business Insider, covering the US military, NATO, and European security, as well as emerging tech in warfare.Jake has filed stories from conflict zones in Ukraine and the Middle East, where he embedded with a US aircraft carrier on a combat mission in the Red Sea. Jake has reported extensively on NATO operations and activities across Europe, including from aboard one of its AWACS surveillance aircraft along the Russian border, a British Voyager tanker refueling fighter jets over the Baltic Sea, and a Dutch helicopter flying to a warship in the Arctic.