The 'Putin Plays Piano' meme originated from footage of Russian President Vladimir Putin playing the piano while waiting for a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2017. The clips of him playing soulful melodies like 'Moscow Windows' quickly went viral, with netizens repurposing the footage to signify various moods ranging from feigned sympathy to strategic plotting. In meme culture, it is most frequently used to represent someone 'playing a sad song' for someone else's minor inconveniences or as a metaphor for a person carefully orchestrating a complex plan or narrative.