Who said this at the Davos World Economic Forumn

“..do not.....exercise excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence.....In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute......In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost Russia dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.......Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors, and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state............we must assess the real situation and write off all hopeless debts and ‘bad’ assets. True, this will be an extremely painful and unpleasant process. Far from everyone can accept such measures, fearing for their capitalization, bonuses, or reputation. However, we would ‘conserve’ and prolong the crisis, unless we clean up our balance sheets........”

------Russian Prime Minister Validmir Putin