Work 'til you die

In its attitude to pension reform, the Russian government resembles a barmaid who asks a client: “Should you water down the beer or not?” Since the authorities, for political reasons, cannot directly increase the retirement age, they are inventing new ways to force Russians to work until they die.

According to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, the Ministry of Labor at the end of last week sent a draft pension reform to the government. The agency proposes: to receive a full retirement pension, men will need to work for at least 45 years and for women at least 40 years. This means that university graduates or mothers who took parental leave will be able to receive a normal pension only after 67–69 years. Without the specified length of service, citizens will receive only a truncated pension.

Thus, the experts were right when they argued that Putin would soon be doomed to act contrary to the interests of his electorate - elderly, low-income people.