Kraft joked about the theft of Putin the champion ring

The words of the owner of the New England Patriots team Robert Craft that he did not give Vladimir Putin in 2005 the ring of the winners of Super Bowl were a joke. This was stated by the team representative James Staisi, according to the website of the National Football League.

"This is a funny, anecdotal story that Robert loves to retell. He likes that this is a ring now in the Kremlin, and, as he said back in 2005, he still respects Russia and admires Putin's presidency," said the representative of the New England Patriots.

Kraft has investments in the Russian economy, Staisi noted. “An additional advantage of attention to this story was the creation of some fan clubs of the New England Patriots in Russia eight years ago,” he added.

On the eve of Kraft he said that he did not give Putin a ring inlaid with diamonds worth 25 thousand dollars received by him for the victory of the team in the American Super Cup-2005. According to Kraft, during a meeting of American businessmen with Putin in Russia, the owner of a football club only wanted to show it to the president. Putin twisted the ring in his hands, tried on it and put it in his pocket. Then he said goodbye to the guests and left the hall, accompanied by three special services, Kraft said.

Soon, according to Kraft, they called him from the White House, whose head was George Bush, and was forbidden to tell this story. He was asked in the interests of Russian-American relations to confirm that the ring was presented. Kraft wrote an article that Putin is a "famous football fan", and the businessman decided to give him a ring "as a sign of respect and admiration for the Russian people and the authorities."

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that he was standing directly behind Putin during this episode and saw how Kraft gave this ring. “If this gentleman is really experiencing such a painful pain from the loss of what happened, it seems, in 2005, in connection with an act of trust, then the president will be ready to send him some other ring that can buy for his money,” RIA Novosti quotes him.

When asked if this is considered as an unfriendly act, Peskov said that "I would not want to believe in such absurd theories of a conspiracy." He also doubted that pressure was on craft. "These words that someone put pressure on him, and so on, of course, is the question of a detailed conversation with psychoanalysts," the press secretary said.

According to Peskov, the ring is now stored in the Kremlin library, like other official gifts.

Immediately after the incident in 2005, the New York Sun reported that Kraft was not going to give the ring to Putin and even tried to return it. “Nobody accuses Mr. Putin or Mr. Kraft of any unseemly matters - it is probably about a misunderstanding, albeit decorated with diamonds,” the newspaper wrote. “Perhaps Kraft thought to tell about his property, while Putin could be mistaken - it seems that his interlocutor offers the leader of the largest country of the world a small souvenir for goodbye.

However, Later Kraft made an official statement in which Putin recognized Putin as a full owner of the award perpeter. Thus, the British Times wrote, Russia and the United States managed to avoid an international scandal.