Asher Moses
January 29, 2009 - 3:04PM
Dell founder Michael Dell learned the hard way not to patronise an ex-KGB agent after his sales pitch to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attracted a caustic response.
In a question and answer session following a 40-minute speech by Putin at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Dell asked Putin how he could help Russia to expand its technology and make the best use of IT talent.
"You see, the trick is that we don't need any help," a prickly Putin retorted.
"We don't need help. We are not invalids. We don't have limited mental capacity."
Putin was quick to point out that computers and the internet were used widely in Russia and Russian schools and that the country's software developers "are some of the best in the world".
Fortune interpreted Putin's comments that Russian scientists were rightly respected not for their hardware, but for their software, as implying that "any old fool can build a PC outfit".
The magazine reported that the "slapdown" took many of the people in the audience by surprise.
Russia has long been reluctant to seek help from the West and relations with the US were strained further after Washington objected to Russia's invasion of Georgia over a territorial dispute last year. The US sided with Georgia and sent humanitarian aid to the country.
US officials have also expressed concern over Putin's increasingly authoritarian rule and Russia's human rights violations in Chechnya, suppression of free speech and the alleged murders and attacks on Russian political dissidents and journalists.
In his Davos sermon, Putin launched a stinging attack on the large Western financial rescue packages agreed by Britain and the US, saying they would do little to aid a global recovery.
He said the global economic crisis - a "perfect storm" - was fuelled by the fact that the world was dominated by one power, the US, and the only cure was a rebalancing of global power.
"There is a temptation to expand direct interference of state in economy. In the Soviet Union that became an absolute. We paid a very dear price for that," he said.
Dell may have invited the rebuke from Putin by prefacing his question with comments that he was "surprised to hear" Putin warn of the dangers of excessive government intervention, saying he "would have never imagined hearing that comment from yourself" six months ago.
Putin, who was Russia's President before becoming Prime Minister, is a former member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which dissolved in December 1991. He was a KGB agent for much of his early life, serving in the department that combated political dissent in the Soviet Union.
Dell was the largest sellers of PCs and servers in the 1980s and 1990s but has since slipped to second spot behind HP.
Its growth has flagged in recent years, prompting the company's founder to seek opportunities in fast-growing markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China.
January 29, 2009 - 3:04PM
Dell founder Michael Dell learned the hard way not to patronise an ex-KGB agent after his sales pitch to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attracted a caustic response.
In a question and answer session following a 40-minute speech by Putin at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Dell asked Putin how he could help Russia to expand its technology and make the best use of IT talent.
"You see, the trick is that we don't need any help," a prickly Putin retorted.
"We don't need help. We are not invalids. We don't have limited mental capacity."
Putin was quick to point out that computers and the internet were used widely in Russia and Russian schools and that the country's software developers "are some of the best in the world".
Fortune interpreted Putin's comments that Russian scientists were rightly respected not for their hardware, but for their software, as implying that "any old fool can build a PC outfit".
The magazine reported that the "slapdown" took many of the people in the audience by surprise.
Russia has long been reluctant to seek help from the West and relations with the US were strained further after Washington objected to Russia's invasion of Georgia over a territorial dispute last year. The US sided with Georgia and sent humanitarian aid to the country.
US officials have also expressed concern over Putin's increasingly authoritarian rule and Russia's human rights violations in Chechnya, suppression of free speech and the alleged murders and attacks on Russian political dissidents and journalists.
In his Davos sermon, Putin launched a stinging attack on the large Western financial rescue packages agreed by Britain and the US, saying they would do little to aid a global recovery.
He said the global economic crisis - a "perfect storm" - was fuelled by the fact that the world was dominated by one power, the US, and the only cure was a rebalancing of global power.
"There is a temptation to expand direct interference of state in economy. In the Soviet Union that became an absolute. We paid a very dear price for that," he said.
Dell may have invited the rebuke from Putin by prefacing his question with comments that he was "surprised to hear" Putin warn of the dangers of excessive government intervention, saying he "would have never imagined hearing that comment from yourself" six months ago.
Putin, who was Russia's President before becoming Prime Minister, is a former member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which dissolved in December 1991. He was a KGB agent for much of his early life, serving in the department that combated political dissent in the Soviet Union.
Dell was the largest sellers of PCs and servers in the 1980s and 1990s but has since slipped to second spot behind HP.
Its growth has flagged in recent years, prompting the company's founder to seek opportunities in fast-growing markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China.
