The story of the Super Bowl championship ring left in the Kremlin: “Vladimir Putin put it in his pocket and left.” Moscow denied the incident
Vladimir Putin holds the 2005 Super Bowl ring belonging to New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft (left) on June 25, 2005. Photo: ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO / AP / Profimedia
Robert Kraft, 84, is the current owner of the New England Patriots, and under his leadership, the Massachusetts franchise has won six championships. On Sunday, Kraft's team aspires to its seventh victory in the Super Bowl, although it is in a new era, with Mike Vrabel as head coach and the young Drake Maye in Brady's place, Marca notes. The Spanish newspaper recalls an episode that featured Kraft and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, quoted by News.ro.
Kraft is the owner of the conglomerate Kraft Group – which has no connection with the Kraft Foods company – which he founded in 1998 and in which he unified all his businesses. That same year, he bought Foxboro Stadium, which was not owned by the Patriots, and that was the key to taking over the franchise in 1994. Belichick and Brady came in and a new stadium was built. Success did not take long to come, and around the Patriots' victories there was also a controversial story at one point: a Super Bowl championship ring was allegedly taken by Vladimir Putin in 2005.
Kraft, along with then-Citigroup chairman Sandy Weill, media mogul Rupert Murdoch and other businessmen, attended a meeting with Putin in 2005 in an attempt to “stimulate trade between the United States and Russia.”
“I could kill someone with this ring”
During a news conference at Konstantinovsky Palace near St. Petersburg, Weil suggested that Kraft show Putin his ring from Super Bowl XXXIX, the Patriots' third win in four years.
The owner of “Pats” handed it to the Russian leader, who admired the 4.94-carat ring and said, according to witnesses: “I could kill someone with this ring” as he put it on his finger. Kraft replied: “You could kill someone without him. You were the head of the KGB,” reaching out to retrieve the jewel, The New York Post wrote at the time, according to CNN.
However, according to witnesses, Putin put the ring in his pocket.
The story had many twists and turns and upset the American president George W. Bush, who considered it a humiliation. He did not understand how such a deed was committed in front of several “heavy” Americans and nothing could be done.
At the request of the White House, Kraft buried the story until, in 2013, during a gala, he revealed everything: “I reached out to him and he put the ring in his pocket. At the same time, three guys from the KGB surrounded him and left. I had an emotional connection with that object, which also bore my name,” said the owner of the franchise.
A Kremlin spokesman defended his president's honor and denied the story: “I heard Mr. Kraft gave him this ring as a gift,” he said.
The story didn't end there, as Kraft assured that it would try to get Donald Trump – during his first term – to step in to try to replace the original ring with a similar one bearing Putin's name.
