Vladimir Putin allegedly stole Robert Kraft’s Super Bowl ring

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 14:13:00 +0000

In 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin walked away from a meeting in St. Petersburg with Patriots owner Robert Kraft's Super Bowl ring, worth more than $25,000. At the time, Kraft issued a statement saying that Putin was "clearly taken with its uniqueness" and so "I decided to give him the ring as a symbol of the respect and admiration that I have for the Russian people and the leadership of President Putin."

Now, however, Kraft says that Putin stole the ring. According to the New York Post, Kraft told the full story when speaking at Carnegie Hall’s Medal of Excellence gala at the Waldorf-Astoria on Thursday:

Kraft explained the incident happened while Sandy Weill and other business execs were in St. Petersburg. “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.”

Convicted extortionist a key player in Idaho citadel project

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 15:00:00 +0000

If you’re a band of antigovernment “Patriots” pitching a plan to build a walled city in North Idaho and manufacture handguns and assault rifles there, you might expect raised eyebrows, a little criticism. But potshots from other Patriots?

Potshots, indeed, are flying at III Arms Co. and its sister land development company, Citadel Land Development, the firms behind a proposed 2,000- to 3,000-acre III Citadel complex for as many as 7,000 “Patriot” families near St. Maries, in Idaho’s sparsely populated Benewah County.

The criticism is sparked by the fact that one of the key players linked to the unlikely-sounding venture is three-time convicted felon Christian Allen Kerodin, a Maryland contractor who has apparently used various aliases and whose birth name was Christian Hyman. His wife or partner, Holly Ann Kerodin, has been involved in questionable charity, counseling, publishing and other ventures that have failed, various critics say.

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Vladimir Putin allegedly stole Robert Kraft’s Super Bowl ring

Convicted extortionist a key player in Idaho citadel project