There were two views on Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's speech at the World Economic Forum Wednesday evening. The first, expressed in this morning's International Herald Tribune, was that Putin "struck a conciliatory tone" with the West, talking about "mutual interests" and "mutual dependencies" rather than pounding the drum against the West. The second is that the speech was essentially a pack of lies coming from a man who has proved time and again that any talk of mutual dependence and foreign investment masked the vast human rights abuses in his own country, a history of pushing foreigners out and his aggression toward neighbors and other world leaders. According to the Financial Times, he "mocked the American delegates" in attendance.

Both views are wrong. If anything, Putin's speech yesterday was surprising because he had an audience of some of the most important people in the world, yet managed to say virtually nothing that hadn't been heard before. He sounded familiar themes about energy security, the need for regional reserve currencies and his desire to build new international structures that are better equipped to deal with the crises like the one now at hand. Indeed, his only tough remark was aimed at Michael Dell, in response to a question from Dell about how his company (and the technology sector more broadly) could help Russia. "We don't need help. We are not invalids," Putin said.

But those who walked away with the view that Putin's tone was either conciliatory or mocking missed the point of the Russian prime minister's speech altogether. What he was stating in bold, sometimes blunt terms, is his view that Russia is a big, confident player in the world and therefore ought to receive respect from other sovereign nations. In this view, what's needed to solve Russia and the world's problems is more cooperation among all the big countries -- Russia included. In other words, as Putin told Dell, Russia does not want "help"; it wants its interests to be understood and taken into account. A simple message, and those who try to read more deeply into it do so at their peril.

See text of Putin's remarks after the jump: