Another light post for the time being, as I am still recovering from the aftermath of the trip, combined with a lack of sleep that has been preventing me from getting over the rather extreme jetlag from three flights that took a combined sixteen plus hours, including the airport layovers, on Wednesday.
Here is a little something that I heard about while overseas: there is a controversy brewing, as reports were leaked that Russian President Putin stole a Super Bowl ring belonging to New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
During a visit to St. Petersburg, Russia in 2005, the ring exchanged hands. What happened next, however, remains clouded in mystery and, now, controversy.
According to Kraft, he was simply showing the then newly won ring:
"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 said, 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."
Putin has denied stealing the ring, claiming it was a gift from the owner of the Patriots.
Other Russians are siding with him. Dmitry Peskov, President Putin's spokesman, explained his side:
"What Mr. Kraft is saying now is weird. I was standing 20 centimeters away from him and Mr. Putin and saw and heard how Mr. Kraft gave this ring as a gift."
It has been suggested that it all may be a case of things being lost in translation. Perhaps President Putin truly thought that Kraft was "giving" him the ring, when he was showing it to him, even handing it to him.
Maybe, but I don't know. I mean, does an Olympic gold medalist simply give up his or her most prized possession, simply because he likes the person that is being showing the coveted prize. A World Cup champion will not give up his medal, nor a tennis player give up his or her championship trophy from a Grand Slam or other event won after much training and a hard fight in actual competitions. Kraft is not a player, but an owner, of course. But it seems highly unlikely that he would simply give his ring away, even to a foreign dignitary that he claims to admire. It is not impossible, but it is highly unlikely.
The White House advised Kraft to keep quiet on the subject in the interests of Russian-American relations.
Kraft does want the ring back. He said, "I had an emotional tie to the ring. It has my name on it."
Here are the articles that I took this information, including the quotes, from:
"Russian president: I did not steal Super Bowl ring" by Alla Eshchenko and Faith Karimi, CNN, Monday, June 17, 2013
http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/16/world/europe/russia-putin-ring
"Vladimir Putin: Super Bowl Ring Was A Gift From Patriots Owner Robert Kraft, Not Stolen" Huffington PostPosted: 06/16/2013 3:28 pm EDT :
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/16/vladimir-putin-super-bowl-ring_n_3450839.html
"Patriots Owner Says Putin Took Super Bowl Ring" by Gillian Mohney of ABCNews:, June 15, 2013
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/06/patriots-owner-says-putin-took-super-bowl-ring/
No comments:
Post a Comment