Russia's pension reform still seen as unjust, but less willing to protest

Russia's pension reform still seen as unjust, but less willing to protest
Number of Russian willing to protest over pension falls significantly / bne intellinews
By bne IntelliNews September 27, 2018

The number of Russians willing to protest the passing of the unpopular pension reform and the hiking of the retirement age has dropped considerably from 53% in September to 35% in August, according to Levada Center pollster cited by Vedomosti daily on September 27.

This confirms previous reports that the nation-wide televised address by the President Vladimir Putin scaling back the reform managed to calm the masses.

However, the new poll suggests that downplaying and squeezing the reform, despite popular discontent, still carries political costs, even though they remain latent currently.

In a televised nation-wide address Putin suggested raising retirement age to 60 for women instead of 63 from 55 now, while leaving the increase for men at 60 to 65 years. He also introduced a number of exemptions and spending increases to ease the pain of the changes, costing an additional RUB500bn.

As much as 40% of the respondents believe that Putin's changes to the reform do not really change it, while another 25% believe that the President's intervention made things worse. Out of the respondents that are familiar with the address 34% worsened their opinion of Putin, while only 7% had their opinion improved.

"The discontent is still there, but there is a feeling that all is done," Denis Volkov of Levada commented to Vedomosti. "The [pension] reform was a shock to the people, who swallowed it, but did not agree with it."

The president throughout his 18-year rule adamantly dismissed retirement age hike urged the people to accept the necessary reform with understanding, warning that sooner or later inaction would burst the entire pension system.

The low retirement ages are a legacy of the Soviet Union but pensions are key for the population. Few pensioners actually stop working when they reach retirement age, so pensions become a supplementary income for the last third of a citizen’s life and have a large impact on their quality of life. Raising the retirement ages is very unpopular.

 

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