A spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin denied the claims made by Patriots owner Robert Kraft that he stole his Super Bowl XXXIX ring in 2005 in an interview with CNN on Sunday. Putin's representatives responded by calling the story "weird".
While being honored at Carnegie Hall's Medal of Excellence gala at the Waldorf-Astoria on Thursday, Kraft told a story of visiting the president in St. Petersburg Russia in 2005. He claims the president took the ring without asking, although he previously released a statement saying he gave Putin the ring as a gift when the altercation took place.
"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, according to the New York Post. "I put my hand out and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out."
However, Putin's representative Dmitry Peskov told CNN otherwise.
"What Mr. Kraft is saying now is weird," Dmitry Peskov told CNN. "I was standing 20 centimeters away from him and Mr. Putin and saw and heard how Mr. Kraft gave this ring as a gift."
The ring, according to Peskov, is now kept at the Kremlin's library.
The Kraft Group released a statement Sunday regarding the ring and clarifying the Patriots' owners comments. A spokesman for Kraft noted that Sandy Weill, a board of trustees chairman of Carnegie Hall, introduced the owner to the crowd on Thursday and also made the trip to Russia with Kraft in 2005.
"It's a humorous, anecdotal story that Robert re-tells for laughs. He loves that his ring is at the Kremlin and, as he stated back in 2005, he continues to have great respect for Russia and the leadership of President Putin," the statement said. "In particular, he credits President Putin for modernizing the Russian economy. An added benefit from the attention this story gathered eight years ago was the creation of some Patriots fan clubs in Russia."
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