This blog is a random collection of information, partly in support of my quotations web site. Other topics include wine, military news, economics, history, libertarianism, and other random things which happen to strike my fancy. Backup site is at http://quotulatiousness.blogspot.com/ (if there are no posts showing, hit the backup blog for explanation). Comments have been turned off, as the spam was getting too much to handle. Comments can be emailed to me for posting.

June 29, 2005

Putin pockets Superbowl ring

AP is reporting (link via Yahoo) that Russian President Vladimir Putin now has a Superbowl ring:

Russian President Vladimir Putin walked off with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft's diamond-encrusted 2005 Super Bowl ring, but was it a generous gift or a very expensive international misunderstanding?

Following a meeting of American business executives and Putin at Konstantinovsky Palace near St. Petersburg on Saturday, Kraft showed the ring to Putin — who tried it on, put it in his pocket and left, according to Russian news reports.

It wasn't clear if Kraft, whose business interests include paper and packaging companies and venture capital investments, intended that Putin keep the ring.

I know that Superbowl rings are relatively enormous, and not the sort of thing that you'd wear casually. Does one of them qualify as a typical gift given to foreign heads of state? Would it cause an international incident to give an ugly piece of jewelry to the head of a former superpower?

Posted by Nicholas at June 29, 2005 11:41 AM
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