REUTERS/Stringer
Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) helps put a blanket on Peng Liyuan, wife of China's President Xi Jinping, as they watch watch a lights and fireworks show to celebrate Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Meeting, at National Aquatics Center, or Water Cube, in Beijing, November 10, 2014. Picture taken November 10, 2014.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Peng Liyuan, the wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, seemed to have a nice time at the official leaders' dinner at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Beijing.
The two seemed to chat politely before something interesting happened.
"Then Mr. Putin, a former Soviet spymaster who rides horses bare-chested, made his move," as described by The New York Times. "He whipped a tan coat from beneath the table and slipped it over Ms. Peng's shoulders as she stood up."
Times Editor Rick Gladstone said that the moment looked "more like Putin chivalrous charm, not an inappropriate pass at Chinese host's wife, but still pretty wild."
You can see the scene play out at around 0:32 on CCTV footage that Chinese censors did their best to scrub from the web:
An interesting note is that this is not the first time Putin has charmed a powerful woman in this way:
Putin, the blanket man: http://t.co/hHcKIGkfiN Remeber St Petersburg and Merkel? pic.twitter.com/LFdUnh1PwU
- Nikolaus von Twickel (@niktwick) November 11, 2014