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[quote]
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft revealed the real story behind a 2005 meeting with Vladimir Putin, during which the Russian president pocketed his Super Bowl ring, worth more than $25,000. Kraft, at the time, claimed the diamond-encrusted bauble was a gift, but he now admits Putin stole it, and the White House intervened when he demanded it back.</p>
<p>Kraft explained the incident happened while Sandy Weill and other business execs were in St. Petersburg. 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 at Carnegie Halls Medal of Excellence gala at the Waldorf-Astoria.I put my hand out and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out.
<p>Frankly, I don’t care whether or not it was stolen, but I’d like us to keep in mind that the original spin on the story came from the NY Post… And that Kraft never said it was stolen despite the sensational headlines.</p>
<p>But Kraft is saying it now that it was taken without his consent and at the time the whitehouse asked him not to make a fuss. It is reported that Myra Kraft told the same story in 2007. What is your point? You are saying that you believe Putin and Kraft is lying?</p>
<p>Russia is the kind of place where gifts / bribes are expected of business people. Alongside a possible language barrier, Putin could have believed that when he handed him the ring it was intended to be a “gift”. I bet Putin’s perception of what happened is different.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t you like to see the POTUS take the 72 Olympic basketball team over and ask Putin to try on the gold medals?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t call him poor or unfortunate. I think he is a good guy but he is still filthy rich with a girlfriend that is more than 30+ years his junior. He said this as mostly a joke and anecdotal story he told at a function, and not an issue he wanted to raise. Putin responses, however, are quite outrageous and very unstatesmen like for a head of state of a very powerful nation.</p>
<p>“These words about how someone put pressure on him and so forth - I think this is an issue for a detailed discussion with psychoanalysts,”</p>
<p>“This gentleman is experiencing such agonising pain from the loss that occurred in connection with an act of trust in 2005,”</p>
<p>“The president will be ready to send him as a gift some other ring, which he can buy with his own money.”</p>
<p>Maybe they did not have their heads on straight due to alcohol or what ever at the time. But a head of state afterwards when you are clear headed and sober actually put out a statement that the other party ought to get his head examined and if he really wants it back, I can buy something else to replace it with my own money? How childish is that?</p>
