Mystery surrounds the origins of the vast table across which the Russian and French leaders faced off over Ukraine
When presidents Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron faced each other at either end of an improbably long, white table last week, the image became a metaphor for the fraught negotiations over Ukraine.
Now the table stakes have been raised after furniture makers in Spain and Italy both claimed that they were commissioned by the Kremlin to make the now famous four-metre-long table.
