Vladimir Putin Says He Didn't Steal Bob Kraft's Super Bowl Ring

Yesterday, we wrote about how Russian president Vladimir Putin Deboed Patriots owner Bob Kraft for one of his Super Bowl rings. The story felt too good to be true, which means it might be too good to be true. Kraft's recount of the exchange and Putin's quote, for example, approaches something resembling implausibility:

“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 Carnegie Hall’s Medal of Excellence gala 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.”

C'mon. I mean, he's Russian, yes. But he's also a president. We hope this happened, but there's no way it actually went down like this, right?

According to CNN, Putin's denying Kraft's claims. The president said it was a gift from the owner.

"What Mr. Kraft is saying now is weird," Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, said in a statement. "I was standing 20 centimeters away from him and Mr. Putin and saw and heard how Mr. Kraft gave this ring as a gift."

This shit is starting to sound a little fishy. Neither man is debating about who has the ring—Putin does—but there's obviously a big difference between giving someone a $15,000 dollar present and having said present taken from you with a wink and a threat.

Someone is lying here. The problem is that we don't really know who to believe. It's a rare, valuable ring that many people would want, some people would steal, and a few would strong-arm another man to get. So on one hand, Putin's Russian, and we associate Russia with vodka, nuclear holocaust, and intimidating evil geniuses. But at the same time, does Kraft, or anyone, for that matter, really have the balls to make up a lie about getting bitched by the president of Russia?

Photo Credit: Associated Press

[ CNN]