Putin softens pension reform plans after protests - Financial Times

August 29, 2018.

Putin softens pension reform plans after protests
Changes had initially been announced during World Cup

President Putin addresses the nation on controversial pension reform © Reuters

Kathrin Hille in Moscow
Russian president Vladimir Putin has stepped in to soften tough pension reform plans which triggered widespread protests and undermined his popularity.

A draft bill providing for a steep rise in the pension age would be amended to make it more socially acceptable before its planned parliamentary approval in October, Mr Putin said in a televised address on Wednesday.

“The law proposes that the pension age for women be raised by 8 years while the pension age for men be raised by 5 years. That’s of course not going to work. That’s not right,” Mr Putin said. He said the pension age for women should be raised from the current 55 to 60 years, instead of 63 years. The age for men would still be lifted by five years, to 65.

Russia’s pension protests are a risk for the Kremlin
Mr Putin also said that government guarantees for annual increases would be added to the bill, which would raise pension levels by more than 40 per cent by the end of his current presidential term in 2024. He ordered a smattering of social benefits to soften the blow of the planned reforms.

Mr Putin’s move comes after his support rates and public trust in him personally suffered a sharp drop in the wake of the government’s policy initiative in June.

The Russian president defended the decision to raise the pension age in principle, warning that the country’s shrinking population did not allow for further delays. But he said that beyond the objective economic necessities, the government had to take people’s feelings and fears into account.