MOSCOW --- The sound and fury hasn't fully subsided after a Moscow audience apparently booed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at a bloody martial arts battle in Moscow. Despite dueling claims, at least one thing is certain: Putin's gift for transfixing audiences ranging from biker gangs to Wall Street bank chiefs somehow collapsed on Sunday.

Putin's press secretary, briefing local journalists late Monday, said the jeers were directed not at his boss but rather at the wounded American fighter, Jeff "The Snowman" Monson, who left...