Anger builds as Russia agrees to hike pension age
Given Russians’ low life expectancy, many will not live long enough under the new system to receive a state pension
Moscow — Russian legislators on Thursday approved a hugely unpopular government plan to hike the pension age that has led to protests and a record slump in President Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings. In a rare move, usually pliant Kremlin-friendly opposition parties — the Communists, the Liberal Democratic Party and A Just Russia — rejected the legislation to raise the pension age to 65 for men and 63 for women. A total of 327 legislators in the lower house or State Duma, voted in favour of the bill in its first reading, with 102 against. The planned pension age hike — a first in nearly 90 years — has led to a rare outburst of public anger at Putin. A legacy of the USSR, Russia’s retirement age — set at 55 for women and 60 for men since Joseph Stalin — is among the lowest in the world. Given Russians’ low life expectancy, many will not live long enough under the new system to receive a state pension but the government said the burden was simply too much for its stretched finances. ...
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