Russian president rejects billionaire US businessman's claim that he pocketed $25,000 diamond ring in St Petersburg in 2005

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

If Vladimir Putin ever takes anything from you, worry not: he will replace it with something bigger and better.

Addressing allegations that he stole a ring from billionaire Robert Kraft, awarded after the American football team he owns won the Super Bowl, the Russian president said: "You know, I remember neither Mr Kraft nor the ring.

"If it's such a valuable thing for Kraft and his team, then I have a proposal," Putin said in response to a question at an annual economic forum in St Petersburg.

"I'll ask our firms to put together a really good, big thing, so everyone will see what an expensive thing it is, with good metal and a stone, so it will be passed from generation to generation in the team, whose interests are represented by Mr Kraft."

The owner of the New England Patriots told a US audience this month that Putin had pocketed the $25,000 (£16,000) diamond-encrusted ring during an awkward meeting in St Petersburg in 2005.

"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 said, the New York Post reported last week.

"I put my hand out and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out."

Kraft said the White House had convinced him to cover up the theft by claiming it was a gift. "I really didn't [want to]," he said. "I had an emotional tie to the ring, it has my name on it."

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has previously denied that Putin pocketed the ring and said he saw Kraft give the ring to the longtime president as a present.

The ring is on display in a Kremlin library devoted to gifts. The scandal has dominated coverage of Putin for more than a week, with analysts taking it as a sign of his ruthlessness and love of luxury goods.

Continuing his sarcastic tone, Putin said he thought his proposal "would be the smartest solution partners can ever achieve while tackling such a complicated international problem".