Putin Stole My Super Bowl Ring: Patriots Owner

Says White House told him to say it was a gift
By Ruth Brown,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 15, 2013 12:27 PM CDT
Putin Stole My Super Bowl Ring: Patriots Owner
Russian President Vladimir Putin.   (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Mikhail Klimentyev, Presidential Press Service,Pool)

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft says Vladimir Putin pilfered his Super Bowl ring. In a speech at Carnegie Hall’s Medal of Excellence gala, he recounted a meeting with the Russian president in 2005, the year the Patriots beat the Philadelphia Eagles: "I took out the ring and showed it to [Putin], and he put it on and he goes, 'I can kill someone with this ring,'" Kraft told the crowd, as per the NY Post. "I put my hand out and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out."

At the time, Kraft released a statement saying he had given Putin the ring as a gift "as a symbol of the respect and admiration that I have for the Russian people and [his] leadership." But now he says, he actually wanted the $25,000 ring back, but the White House called him and said, "It would really be in the best interest of US-Soviet relations if you meant to give the ring as a present." (Though, as the Post notes, the Soviet Union didn't actually exist anymore in 2005.) The ring is now reportedly in the Kremlin library. (More Robert Kraft stories.)

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