MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. Russian and Chinese Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, did not shake hands during their meeting inn Beijing at a request of the Chinese side as a precaution amid the coronavirus pandemic; there was nothing political about that, Russian presidential chief of protocol Vladimir Kitayev said on Sunday.
"Naturally, it was coordinated and agreed beforehand. Our Chinese colleagues asked to refrain from shaking hands. We did not see anything alarming about it and agreed. The president knew that he was not supposed to extends his hand to the Chinese leader," he said in an interview with the Moscow.Kremlin.Putin program on the Rossiya-1 television channel.
"There was nothing political about that," Kitayev stressed.
"It was an attempt to avoid any risks of coronavirus complications," he explained.
According to the chief of the Kremlin protocol, such practices are quite common amid the pandemic. "When Mrs. [former German Chancellor Angela] Merkel visited us last August, her protocol service also asked to refrain from shaking hands. We opted to present flowers to her instead," he said.
When asked what the leaders think about such things, he said he wouldn’t speak on behalf of all leaders. "But our president is quite positive about it. When colleague ask something, he is always ready to meet them halfway," he said, adding that this is why sometimes we can see them hugging and sometimes "speaking across the table.".