Turkmenistan Uses Outrageously Huge Table During Putin’s Visit

Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Turkmenistan earlier this week included a meeting with his fellow heads of state at a table so large that one journalist suggested it "could probably fit an entire hockey rink in the middle."

Putin met with the presidents of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan at the 6th Caspian Summit Wednesday, the Russian chief executive's office said in a statement.

The meeting, which discussed cooperation in the Caspian Sea, was held at the luxurious Arkadag Hotel in Turkmenistan's capital of Ashgabat, according to the host's government.

Leaders of the so-called "Caspian Five" first held an intimate gathering at the hotel's small conference hall, Business Insider reported, citing Turkmenistan's foreign affairs ministry.

They then held another meeting at a larger conference hall, which featured a massive rectangular table.

Photos of the second meeting made the rounds on social media as they showed Putin sitting far away from the other leaders due to the sheer size of the table they used.

"You could probably fit an entire hockey rink in the middle," the Financial Times’ Moscow bureau chief Max Seddon wrote in a Twitter post.

In February, Putin also made headlines when he met with French President Emmanuel Macron at a 13-foot-long table in Moscow.

The same table was used in Putin’s meeting with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres more than two months later.

The long table, which also sparked jokes online like the table in Turkmenistan, is said to symbolize Putin's distant and isolated nature.

"It is obvious that he is more and more alone," independent political analyst Konstantin Kalachev told AFP.

"This loneliness is obvious, it seems he no longer cares what other people think of him," he added.

It is unclear why Putin uses the long table, but the Russian head of state may be obsessed with his health and safety, especially during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to a previous report by The New York Times.

Russia has reported a total of 18,430,239 COVID-19 cases and 381,112 virus-related deaths, according to data provided by the World Health Organization.

Putin's visit to Turkmenistan came days after the leaders of the U.S., Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Japan and Italy pledged to stand with Ukraine against Russia's invasion at the 48th G7 summit.