The Russian president's diplomatic gesture, made ahead of talks with his French counterpart in St. Petersburg on Thursday, prompted Twitter users still recovering from Bild's claim that Putin's flowers have a "hidden meaning" to swoon anew.
Last week, Bild wrote a piece suggesting that while Putin's flowers for Chancellor Merkel may have looked "like a courtesy…in fact [they were] an affront."
In addition to numerous bouquets for Chancellor Merkel, Putin has also given flowers to Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Austrian diplomat Ursula Plassnik, and the wives of numerous statesmen, from Cherie Blair to Laura Bush to Xi Jinping's wife Peng Liyuan. In 2007, he even gave a boquet to Patriarch Alexy II on the occasion of his 78th birthday.