4 THINGS ABOUT RUSSIAN PENSIONS
Vladimir Putin backtracked somewhat on his pension reforms Wednesday after an outcry that hurt his personal approval ratings. Here are four things to know about the reforms:
1 DRASTIC CHANGE IN ELIGIBILITY
The original proposal was to raise the pension age to 65 from 60 for men and to 63 from 55 for women. Critics argued that hundreds of thousands of people would not live long enough to see their pensions, or much of them. The average life expectancies in Russia are 66.5 for men and 76.9 for women, according to the World Bank.
2 INITIAL NEWS BURIED AT START OF WORLD CUP
The reforms were first announced by Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister, in June, on the day the World Cup kicked off in Russia. The move elicited criticism that the Kremlin was trying to bury bad news. In July, protests erupted all over the country, with opposition politicians and citizens voicing their discontent with the changes. Alexei Navalny, one of Putin’s biggest opponents, has called for nationwide demonstrations about it on Sept. 9, but on Monday, he was jailed for 30 days over an unsanctioned protest seven months earlier. Pollsters meanwhile reported Putin’s approvals dropped to 67 per cent in July from 80 per cent, the lowest since before the Crimea annexation.
3 PENSION SYSTEM WILL ‘COLLAPSE’, PUTIN WARNS
In announcing rare concessions Wednesday, Putin said the economy and demographic changes made reform of the pension system inevitable or it would “crack and collapse.” He said: “For years I was cautious and even suspicious about proposals to change the pension system ... But the trends that we’re seeing ... objective analysis of the situation show that we can’t put it off any longer ... However, our decisions must be fair, balanced and take interests of the people into account.”
4 SPECIAL TREATMENT FOR WOMEN
Putin said women could now exit the workforce at 60 but he did not back down on the new retirement age for men. He also said mothers of three or more children would be allowed to retire earlier — aged between 50 and 57, depending on the number of children they had. “In our country, we treat women in a special, caring way,” he said.