Putin snubs Dell at Davos

DAVOS, SWIZERLAND: At the official opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos,Dell founder Michael Dell learned a hard lesson from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin – don't patronize an ex-KGB agent, especially when he is a judo expert!

After the official opening, Putin 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.

And then came the turn of Dell to be at the receiving end at the Q&A session. Praising Russia's technical and scientific prowess, Michael Dell asked the Russian Prime Minister: How can we help you to expand IT in Russia?

But the Dell chief never thought it was a great mistake on his part to ask such a 'foolish' question to a Russian leader!

"You see, the trick is that we don't need any help," Putin retorted. "We don't need help. We are not invalids. We don't have limited mental capacity."

Then he went on to explain that computer and Internet were used widely in Russia and the country's software developers "are some of the best in the world".

And the Fortune magazine interpreted Putin's comments like this: “Russian scientists were rightly respected not for their hardware, but for their software, as implying that 'any old fool can build a PC outfit'.”

Ever since it has been slipped to second spot behind HP, Dell, the largest sellers of PCs and servers in the 1980s and 1990s, has been seeking opportunities in fast-growing markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China.

But Michael Dell never thought it would result in such a judo kick from the Russia, which still believes that the capitalists should learn a lesson or two from Das Capital before making any more capitalistic overtures in the time of global meltdown!