Putin offers limited concessions to pension reform plan
Aug 31, 2018 · 2 min read

What happened
Just as we predicted, President Vladimir Putin played the role of the “good tsar” by announcing concessions over Russia’s most unpopular reform of the past decade — increases to the pension age. On Wednesday, Putin addressed the nation in a 30-minute televised speech.
- The main concession Putin promised was to raise the pension age for women not by 8 years, but by 5 years; from 55 years to 60 years. The pension age for men will be increased as planned, from 60 years to 65 years. Putin explained that it would be unfair to increase the pension age for men and women differently. The president has strange ideas about fairness and equality: the pension age for men and women remains different, although the U.S. and dozens of other countries have the same pension age for both sexes. This is particularly surprising given that in Russia women on average live ten years longer than men, and 43% of Russian men won’t live (Russian) to reach 65 years of age. Nor is it beneficial for the nation’s finances either to have women retire earlier — there are far more female pensioners than male. As a result of Putin’s concession, the budget will lose almost all of the gains it hoped to achieve.
- Government officials are already calculating what they will lose. According to their sums, the budget will lose about $7 billion over the next six years because of Putin’s suggestion and by 2039 the budget will be down $52 billion.
- However, after Putin’s televised address, it was Russian business that was the most upset. The president promised to make it illegal to fire pension-age employees. In reality, this will lead to companies simply not hiring anyone over the age of 50.
Why the world should care
All told, Putin’s concessions were relatively minor, demonstrating that the Kremlin is confident the president’s level of popular support is robust. His approval rating took a hit in the summer when the pension reform plan was announced. But, even before the televised address, which had a record high number of viewers, his rating had begun to rise.
Peter Mironenko
This newsletter is made with the support of the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley.
