Under rare pressure at home, Putin promises to soften pension overhaul

Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin took to national TV on Wednesday with a promise to soften the government’s plan to raise the retirement age, even as he sought to convince Russians that painful changes remain necessary to put the economy on more solid footing.

The unusual televised address to the nation was a sign that despite Putin’s dominance over Russian politics, the Kremlin fears the consequences of public discontent. Putin repeatedly referred to the audience as his “dear friends” and ended with: “I ask for your understanding.”

The original proposal to overhaul the pension system, first announced by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev just as the soccer World Cup kicked off here in June, would have raised the retirement age to 65 from 60 for men and to 63 from 55 for women. But polls showed the move was deeply unpopular, and it sparked protests across the country.

In Wednesday’s address, Putin said he would move to reduce the new retirement age for women to 60.

“We’re not going to let that happen, of course,” Putin said, referring to the proposed eight-year increase for women. “In our country, there is a special, caring attitude to women.”

At the same time, Putin used his half-hour-long remarks to argue that Russia’s low birthrate and growing life expectancy meant that the country’s pension system — largely unchanged from Soviet times — needs to evolve. It was a rare case in which Putin — despite his vast influence on politics, the security apparatus and the news media — turned directly to the public to defend an unpopular measure. And it underscored the challenges that Russia’s lackluster economic growth, undermined further by Western sanctions, poses to Putin’s rule.

“It’s natural that all of this is perceived painfully by many people. I understand this well and share this concern,” Putin said, speaking directly to the camera.