Intercepted by Putin

The New England Patriots won the Super Bowl in January and all President Bush got was a team jersey, presented to him by Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, for his part, walked away from an encounter with Kraft last month with a 4.94-carat diamond Super Bowl ring in his pocket.

Visiting Russia as part of a delegation of American corporate executives, Kraft was showing off his new ring, worth about $25,000, to the Russian leader during a news conference after a session on foreign investment. A beaming Kraft told Putin, “It’s a Super Bowl ring, a very good ring.”

The Russian leader and former KGB agent admired the gaudy piece of jewelry, modeled it, pocketed it and bade his visitors farewell. Putin must have assumed that this was one more form of “foreign investment” seeking a greater return down the road.

Bostonians were stunned that Putin would pocket the team owner’s ring, but Kremlin watchers were quick to point out that Russia’s president assumes that everything he sees is for the taking, as seen in the Russian state’s thinly veiled takeover last year of the Yukos oil company. A few years back, an exhibition of gifts to Russian czars traveled to the United States, so it’s conceivable the ring could visit its homeland again as part of such an exhibit in the future.

For a couple of days, it seemed like the Super Bowl ring could trigger an international incident as the Patriots organization was silent on whether the ring had been given or pocketed.

Kraft broke his silence Wednesday, saying: “Upon seeing the ring, President Putin, a great and knowledgeable sports fan, was clearly taken with its uniqueness. At that point, I decided to give him the ring” as a token of “respect and admiration.” It was a gracious statement, though it acknowledged that Kraft hadn’t intended to offer Putin the ring.

The obvious lesson here is that you have to be careful where you wear your valuable jewelry. But the National Football League may yet capitalize on Kraft’s generosity. At a time when American taxpayers are getting awfully grumpy about paying for stadiums, perhaps Putin could encourage St. Petersburg to build a publicly financed stadium to bid for an NFL expansion franchise.