Balsillie says company has “ambitious plans” in country, offers Medvedev a BlackBerry tablet
It’s no secret Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev is a fan of Apple’s iPad: he’s been spotted with the device at various state meetings. But on Monday, the leader met with Jim Balsillie, RIM’s co-chief executive, who offered Medvedev a new Blackberry tablet in a discussion about developing technology. Balsillie said he has “extremely ambitious plans to sell Blackberry in Russia, invest in R&D, (and) also to invest in start-ups.” Russia’s communications minister, Igor Shchyogolev, said Russia wants the most up-to-date technologies on the market. Balsillie also said that Russia needs to find a balance between state security and innovation in order to foster development of new technologies. Earlier this year, RIM fought with India after it demanded the rights to monitor BlackBerry services, including corporate emails. (RIM gave India the means to access its Messenger service, but not corporate emails).