Putin concedes on retirement plan
MOSCOW — Facing protests and a noticeable dip in his approval ratings, President Vladimir Putin made rare concessions Wednesday to an unpopular pension reform package that increased retirement age for Russians.
The televised address marked an extraordinary occasion when Putin apparently felt compelled to explain a major policy decision.
The general idea of increasing retirement age was justified because of Russia’s economy and demographic trends. Without such a move, Russia’s pension system “would crack and eventually collapse,” Putin said.
In softening the plan, he said the new retirement age for women will be raised only to 60 from the current 55, instead of the previous 63. Left unchanged, however, was increasing the retirement age for men from 60 to 65.
Russia’s economy has been hobbled in recent years by falling oil prices and Western sanctions over the 2014 annexation of Crimea. The country also faces a demographic crisis as a result of the extremely low birth rates that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The government’s plan to raise retirement ages initially was announced in June on the first day of the World Cup in Russia.
Putin has refrained from commenting on the subject for weeks, while a widespread outcry began emerging. Alexei Navalny, one of Putin’s biggest opponents, called for nationwide demonstrations about it on Sept. 9, but he was jailed Monday for 30 days over an unsanctioned protest seven months earlier.
The pension proposals have pushed Putin’s approval ratings from 80 percent to under 70 percent — his lowest since before the Crimea annexation.