At Davos, Russian prime minister Putin told Michael Dell CEO, of Dell Computer: "We don't need help. We are not invalids."
CNN's Peter Gumbel, Europe editor, reports:
At the official opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Putin, now Russian Prime Minister, delivered a 40-minute speech touching on everything from why the dollar should not be the sole reserve currency to how the world needed to enter into a smart energy partnership with Russia. Then it was time for questions. First up: Dell. He praised Russia's technical and scientific prowess, and then asked: "How can we help" you to expand IT in Russia.
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Putin's withering reply to Dell: "We don't need help. We are not invalids. We don't have limited mental capacity." … And, in a final dig at Dell, he talked about how Russian scientists were rightly respected not for their hardware, but for their software. The implication: Any old fool can build a PC outfit.
