Long before Tucker Carlson jetted off to Moscow to interview Vladimir Putin — claiming that no one else in American media had given the Russian president a fair listen — he seemed to have come to some pretty firm conclusions about the guy.
It was June 2005, and the cable-news host was commenting on an oddball story making headlines at the time: how the Russian president had pocketed a diamond-encrusted Super Bowl ring that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft showed him during a business gathering. (In Kraft’s telling, Putin donned the sparkler, said “I can kill someone with this ring,” then walked away with it. White House officials reportedly urged Kraft to drop the matter.)
