July 26, 2013

Putin: Lord of the Ring?

By Ken Blackwell and Bob Morrison
There's a famous picture of Josef Stalin hefting a two-handed broadsword. It was a gift from the British people in honor of the defense of Stalingrad. Made of the finest Sheffield steel, it was presented it to the Soviet dictator by Prime Minister Churchill at a famous summit conference in 1943. In motion pictures not shown at the time, Stalin nearly drops the famous gift. Not so, Vladimir Putin. Putin never loses his grip on anything. In 2005, the Russian vozhd (boss) was admiring the Super Bowl ring of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Kraft described his meeting in St. Petersburg the summer after his team won the classic football contest, Super Bowl XXXIX. In a Chris Strauss story in USA Today, the team owner told his side of the story. 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...(Read Full Article)