The Patriots’ 2005 Super Bowl Ring (AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. (EPA)
Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t remember stealing Robert Kraft’s Super Bowl ring, but if it’s so valuable then he’ll just make some more.
The Russian president addressed the controversy for the first time since the Patriots owner told the story last week.
“You know, I do not remember Mr. Kraft, nor the ring. But if it’s like this – I remember that I was handed some souvenirs – if this is such a great value for Kraft and the respective team, I have a proposal,” Putin said at the Petersburg Economic Forum, according to Interfax.
Putin did have a solution for the problem. He offered to replicate the ring and give it to Kraft and the Patriots.
“I will ask our factory to produce really good, significant, so we can see that this kind of thing is expensive and with good metal, and stone, so that this product can be passed from generation to generation of the team, which represents the interests of Mr. Kraft , ” he said.
Kraft originally said he had given the ring to Putin in 2005 as a gift out of “respect and admiration.” But Kraft told the crowd at Carnegie Hall’s Medal of Excellence gala that Putin swiped it and the White House intervened when he demanded it back.
“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 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.”
The Kremlin, whose library the ring was reportedly being held, denied Kraft’s story, but Putin had yet to directly address the controversy before today’s speech.
“(It) will be the smartest … solution to this complex, international problem,” the snarky leader said.