Post this incident, I am sure Michael Dell will not handle the Russians directly. At the opening ceremony of the World Economy Forum in Davos, Russian PM, Vladimir Putin gave a 40-minute speech followed by a Q&A session. The Dell CEO grabbed this opportunity by boasting about Russia’s technical and scientific advancements and then asked about how can Dell help them to expand IT in Russia.
Putin just stung him hearing the question. This is what he said.
“We don’t need help. We are not invalids. We don’t have limited mental capacity.” The slapdown took many of the people in the audience by surprise. Putin then went on to outline some of the steps the Russian government has taken to wire up the country, including remote villages in Siberia. 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.”
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