VLADIMIR A THIEF? NOT SO SAID NEW ENGLAND PATRIOT’S OWNER IN 2005, BUT NOW SINGS A DIFFERENT TUNE (UPDATE)

Did or didn’t Putin steal Robert Kraft’s 2005 Super Bowl ring?

It’s extremely hard for me to believe that a powerful man like Putin, who can have almost anything he wants at the snap of a finger, would steal Robert Kraft’s ring.

PUTIN DENIES STEALING PATRIOTS SUPER BOWL RING AND SAYS IT’S IN THE KREMLIN MUSEUM WITH ALL OTHER ‘STATE GIFTS’
Robert Kraft claims the Russian leader simply pocketed his Super Bowl ring when he showed it to him back in 2005 and that the White House advised him that it would be in the best interests of relations between the two countries if he said it was a gift

Mail Online
June 16, 2013

The Russian President is fighting back against recently-revealed claims that he stole a Super Bowl ring from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

On Sunday, Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the $25,000 Super Bowl XXXIX ring was clearly offered by Kraft as a gift.

It is currently housed in the Kremlin's museum, along with all over state gifts, he added.

Kraft turned the 2005 incident into international news on Thursday when he publicly claimed that Putin pocketed his ring after asking to examine it. Kraft said he was asked by American government officials to later say it was a gift to save international embarrassment.

Peskov told CNN that he doesn't know why Kraft, a billionaire business magnate, is making the allegations against Putin.

'What Mr. Kraft is saying now is weird. I was standing 20 centimeters away from him and Mr. Putin and saw and heard how Mr. Kraft gave this ring as a gift,' he told the network.

That's not the way Kraft told the story Thursday night in front of a packed crowd at Carnegie Hall’s Medal of Excellence gala in New York, the New York Post reports.

‘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.

‘I put my hand out and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out.’

Peskov, Putin's spokesman, disputed Kraft's version of events. He also said Putin never kept the ring for himself.

Instead, he sent it to the Kremlin museum, where other Russian state gifts are kept, he said.