Saudi king takes 1,500 entourage, golden escalator, food, furniture on Russia trip
6 Oct 2017 10:47 PM IST
Moscow: Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz is on a four-day state visit to Russia along with his entourage of 1,500 people, a golden escalator and his own carpets, a person familiar with the matter said.
On Wednesday, the 81-year-old king of the kingdom exited his plane out onto his golden escalator which malfunctioned halfway down and forced him to walk down rest of the way where his cavalcade of cars waited for him along with Russian police escorts.
This is the first visit to Russia by a Saudi monarch and both the countries have already struck a deal on weapons' sale and how to stabilise the oil market. Around 800 kilogrammes of food has been flown in by a Saudi plane that is travelling daily between Riyadh and Moscow to transport supplies, according to the person.
"Members of the royal entourage also replaced some of the hotel staff with their own personnel, who know exactly how they like their coffee made," he further added. King Salman even brought his own furniture along to the luxury hotels booked by the Saudi government for the visit. Other guests were asked to cancel their reservations and people who lived there permanently even moved out. "The entire hotel is booked through October 8 and isn't open to the public," said a doorman.
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