Examination of Witnesses (Questions 340
- 342)
FRIDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2007
Mr Robert Cooper, Mr David Johns and Mr Björn
Fagerberg
Q340 Lord Truscott:
I live in hope, but it is just the timeframe you are looking at.
Mr Cooper: The timeframe will be much longer,
but I do not know about that.
Q341 Lord Hamilton of Epsom:
We do not know and windows that shut open again. If we are developing
a middle class in Russia, then in European countries the middle
classes want votes and some influence over the country in which
they are living. If that emerges, I think democracy will follow.
Mr Cooper: There are schools of thought which
say that you can develop a stable authoritarian plutocracy, but
we will see.
Q342 Lord Hamilton of Epsom:
The jury is out.
Mr Cooper: I also think that life is more complicated
than that and things never go quite as they are predicted. The
individual wish of individual people to control their lives in
the end has an impact. I do not think it is a question of who
lost Russia because it really has changed a lot. Although Russia
sometimes takes rather an aggressive stance, it does not give
the impression that it is planning to invade anybody and, indeed,
most of what they talk about is exercising power through economic
means. That seems relatively healthy.
Chairman: Mr Cooper, thank you very much
indeed for your time and for what has been a very interesting
and informative session. Thank you.
| 
