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THE SENIOR MOSCOW banker was blunt the night president Vladimir Putin was swept into a second term of office. "But is the lack of democracy good for Russia?" he pondered.
It is not the sort of question that foreign investors normally ask of political events in Russia but they are very nervous about what the future holds.
Ironically, no-one believes that Putin's overwhelming victory will be bad for the economy. A new cabinet was appointed a week before the vote to save time, and prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, a Yeltsin-era politician, was replaced by Mikhail Fradkov, who will be the technocratic enforcer running a slimmed-down government.
It is not these changes but rather Putin's hold on all the political levers and the near complete lack of checks and balances that are making bankers jittery.
What will happen when Putin steps down in 2008? For one thing the democrats are unlikely to improve their position greatly. Irina Khakamada, the only liberal to stand against Putin, claimed her 4% of the vote was a "victory".