The leaders of Germany, Russia, and France — Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin, and Francois Hollande — met on Friday to discuss the chances of peace in Ukraine. It went...okay.
We don't have a transcript of this rare and fantastically staged meeting without aides in front of us, but that's okay. Using the Very Real Science of body language, we have determined that Hollande has no idea why he is even in this meeting.
Here Hollande demonstrates "Serious Listening Face," something that everyone who has had to sit through meetings they clearly didn't prepare for has on lock.
Here we can see Hollande furtively glancing about for the cheese plate, and wondering just why the Kremlin would be so rude as to have a meeting without snacks.
It's pretty apparent here that whatever was being discussed was not exactly something Putin and Merkel felt like sharing with Hollande.
I don't know if Merkel and Putin are speaking Russian or German, but I'm pretty sure Hollande doesn't speak either
The science is inexact, but here Hollande is wondering if he can still find a way to pawn the Mistral warships that France is no longer selling to Russia. "They go well on the secondhand market, right?"
And finally, we are forced to wonder what on Earth Hollande could have said to warrant this 100-year-old oak level shade being thrown his way.
Really, it was nice of Merkel and Putin to invite him along. It's nice to feel involved.
