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Was he just being a gentleman or was there more to it? Russian President Vladimir Putin has set the international media and Internet abuzz by putting his coat on the shoulders of China’s First Lady Peng Liyuan.
As leaders of 21 Asia-Pacific nations, including Russia, converged upon Beijing for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit event, the Russian strongman was seated next to Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan, who in turn sat next to her husband, Chinese President Xi Jinping.
While Xi was engaged in conversation with US President Barack Obama, Putin after a brief exchange, abruptly stood up, grasped a tan coat in both hands, and wrapped it chivalrously around the First Lady's shoulders.
Peng smiled gracefully, thanked him, and sat down - only to surreptitiously slip the coat from her shoulders moments later into the waiting arms of an attendant.
Within hours of the incident, Chinese media outlets went crazy over the incident and had immediately posted video of it. The video began circulating across Chinese social media and also gave birth to the hashtag “Putin Gives Peng Liyuan His Coat.”
However, Chinese censors kicked into overdrive and soon Chinese news sites had already pulled it off their sites, and it has been scrubbed off from social media sites.