January 17, 2005, 20:20 Society

The government is asked to think

German Prokhorov , Alexander Korataev (Tyumen) , Anastasia Nikitina (Irkutsk) , Denis Bulanichev (Novosibirsk) , Vadim Biserov (Perm) The President of Russia said that the government has not thought about the key problems of monetizing benefits. And he proposed a number of solutions that should reassure beneficiaries. Meanwhile, protests, supported by the church, trade unions and almost all opposition parties, are being prepared in almost half of Russian regions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday criticized the country's government and regional leadership for implementing the law on preferential payments. As Interfax reports, at a meeting with members of the government, he said that the Russian government and regional leadership “are not fully fulfilling their tasks in implementing the law”: “We said that decisions made on the reform would not worsen the situation. Did you manage to do this or not? I think that it was not possible to do this everywhere,” says the head of state.

The president said that “the government has not thought deeply and comprehensively about all these issues.” However, according to the president , not only the officials at the head of the ministries are to blame for the current discontent of the people, but also the left and right parties, “which created, on the one hand, the oligarchic system in Russia and allowed the national wealth to be stolen, and on the other hand, made popular but absolutely impossible decisions or contributed to their adoption.”

According to the president, if you think about it, there are solutions to such problems, and they lie within the framework of the law and the principles of the adopted reform and make it possible to implement the law and preserve social justice.

The problem of travel for beneficiaries on transport, for example, can be solved by providing them with travel tickets for a month - but for an amount not exceeding compensation: “Any citizen can determine: either he should buy a travel document, which he will use for a month on all types of urban transport , or keep the money if he drives less intensively.”

The President also noted that it is necessary to solve the problems of beneficiaries at the federal level. According to Vladimir Putin, it would be correct if the government solved this problem in dialogue with the regions and compensated the regions for the corresponding losses.

In addition, he also proposed that pensions be indexed “not from April 1 by 100 rubles, as was said before, but from March 1 and at least twice as much” - that is, by 200 rubles.

In response, the Minister of Health and Social Security of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Zurabov, promised that from March 1, pensions would be increased by approximately 240 rubles. If, of course, they counted correctly this time.

Touching upon the problem of transport services, Zurabov said that from January 1 to January 14, 1 million 815 thousand people traveled for free on suburban railway trains, and only 200 complaints were received via the hotline. “The inconvenience arose due to the fact that many beneficiaries are accustomed travel without documents, but now it is necessary to present the appropriate certificate that determines the right to free travel,” the minister said.

The minister's words could provoke a new wave of rallies. However, on Monday, Russian beneficiaries did not leave the streets.

From very early in the morning, reports of protests began to arrive from all over Russia. In particular, in Tyumen, about 200 benefit recipients took to the streets with posters “Down with the monetization of benefits” and “Government resign.” They gathered in the central square near the regional administration building. As a Gazeta.Ru correspondent reports, some of the protesters are representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the NBP (an organization banned in Russia). According to preliminary information, at first they planned to block the main street, but then abandoned this idea. The rally participants sent their demands to the president, government, State Duma and Federation Council .

In Novosibirsk, at about 11.00 (8.00 Moscow time), three dozen pensioners demanding the return of free travel on public transport blocked the movement of trams and vehicles at the intersection of Titov and Svyazistov streets for an hour. As Gazeta.Ru was told in the administration of the Leninsky district of Novosibirsk, city administration officials who arrived there persuaded those gathered to disperse, promising that on Monday the head of the city, Vladimir Gorodetsky, would sign a decree introducing a preferential travel pass for pensioners (the provision had been developed throughout the past week). But before the Novosibirsk pensioners had time to leave the roadway, an emergency occurred.

An SUV trying to drive through a street blocked by a crowd hit one of the protesters. The pensioner was taken to the hospital with fractures of both legs.

Assistant to the regional prosecutor for public relations Natalya Markasova told Gazeta.Ru that the incident is now being verified. According to some reports, the jeep that hit the rally participant did not have license plates, and the authorities suspect that “it was a provocation.”

About 2 thousand pensioners went on strike in Angarsk, Irkutsk region. Beneficiaries gathered in the square near the regional administration building with banners “Bring back benefits.” As the press service of the Angarsk Municipal Unit (AMO) told Gazeta.Ru, the meeting was unorganized and it was practically impossible to communicate with veterans. “The deputy mayor of the AMO for social issues, Irina Tsypenko, and the head of the department of social protection of the population of Angarsk, Veniamin Minchenko, tried to talk to the protesters. But the crowd was uncontrollable, the press service said. “The protesting veterans were not even interested in the amount of payments, terms or anything like that, they simply demanded that benefits be returned to them, including travel on transport.”

streets for an hour Pensioners who did not want to communicate with officials blocked Lenin and Karl Marx . According to law enforcement agencies, pensioners were brought to the streets by a publication in the private newspaper Vremya, which the day before announced the place and time of the rally. As the editor of the publication Oleg Tyumenev explained, last week “three old men” contacted the editorial office and reported on the organization of the rally with a request to publish the information.”

According to some reports, employees of the local FSB Directorate became interested in the organizers of the unauthorized rally in Angarsk .

An unauthorized rally also took place in Kazan. Pensioners with the slogans “We demand free travel”, “We gave everything to the country, now we are not needed”, “They ripped off pensioners” and “100% payment for housing and communal services - the death of pensioners” blocked the intersection of Tatarstan and Kirov streets.

In Khabarovsk, about 300 picketers blocked tram traffic in the city center. According to administration representatives, the organizers of the rallies were the Communist Party of the Russian Federation .

In Georgievsk, Stavropol Territory, about 500 benefit recipients gathered for a rally.

In Nalchik (Kabardino-Balkaria), pensioners staged a protest in front of the Government House building.

In Cherkessk, about 100 pensioners blocked traffic along the central street of the city - after which the President of Karachay-Cherkessia Mustafa Batdyev met with them , Interfax reports.

In Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, about 150 pensioners took part in rallies near the buildings of the regional administration and regional Duma.

In Naberezhnye Chelny, 400 beneficiaries took part in the protest.

Residents of Veliky Novgorod also went on strike - about 200 pensioners came to a rally at the city administration building.

In the Tver region, near Vyshny Volochok, several hundred pensioners blocked the E-95 highway, ITAR-TASS reports .

In Perm, on Lenin Street, opposite the administration building of the Perm region, about 500 pensioners held a rally. In addition to the return of benefits, they demanded the resignation of the government and the start of impeachment proceedings against President Putin. Vice-Governor Valery Sukhikh held negotiations with some of the protesters, who suggested that he urgently prepare a draft regional law on returning to the previous version of providing benefits. At this time, at the rally, those gathered proposed to block the Trans-Siberian Railway, return free travel, simply refusing to pay for the ticket, and in case of resistance from conductors and drivers, block the buses. A few hours later, the rally participants, accompanied by the police, moved along Lenin Street to the city administration building. The pensioners achieved a meeting with the mayor of Perm Arkady Kamenev, but did not come to an agreement with him. Therefore, as the participants and organizers of the rally announced - representatives of the branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Revolutionary Labor Party, the Yabloko party, the student trade union "Solidarity", the Council of Veterans of the Motovilikha District, the trade union "Solidarity", workers of "Passenger Avtotrans" and the independent student trade union - they intend on Tuesday at noon, close Lenin Street again and continue the protests until the demands are fully met. Official protest rallies against the law on the monetization of benefits, organized by the local branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the regional council of veterans, are already planned for January 22 and 25 in Perm. According to available information, the head of the local television and radio company "T7" Valery Sergeev forbade reporters from covering “popular unrest” over the monetization of benefits.

In St. Petersburg, pensioners also organized another unauthorized rally. About 100 ex-beneficiaries gathered near Smolny, after which they moved along Suvorovsky Prospekt towards Nevsky, Interfax reports. The day before, large protests took place in St. Petersburg: on Sunday, 5 thousand pensioners blocked traffic along Nevsky, demanding the return of benefits, as well as the resignation of Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and Governor Valentina Matvienko . Attempts by officials to calm the crowd failed: when the head of the Committee on Labor and Social Policy, Alexander Rzhanenkov , came out to the protesters and wanted to inform the pensioners of his solidarity with them, the crowd booed him. According to news agencies, protesters set up five orange tents on the tram tracks at the intersection of Sadovaya Street and Novsky Prospekt.

The pensioners said they were declaring an “orange revolution” and would not remove their tents until their benefits were returned to them.

After a meeting in the regional government, which was attended by the head of the Ministry of Health and Social Development, Mikhail Zurabov, the authorities of the Leningrad region decided to meet with representatives of the protesters from the Movement of Civil Initiatives, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the NBP, Yabloko and the Committee of United Actions in Defense of Social and Labor Rights of Citizens.

Now the authorities of most regions prefer to give benefits back to pensioners, just to stop the protests.

This mainly concerns free travel on city and suburban transport and payment for housing and communal services. In addition, the regions are trying to pay cash compensation to pensioners as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, opposition parties are proposing to dismiss the government of Mikhail Fradkov.

According to the leader of the Rodina Duma faction, Dmitry Rogozin, “the president’s non-interference puts him on the same level as the government,” at whose suggestion the State Duma adopted the law on preferential payments, Interfax reports. “We stand for the unconditional resignation of the entire cabinet and prosecution of those individuals who prepared this kind of provocation against the country,” Rogozin said.

also said that the monetization of benefits could well become the reason for the resignation of the government And at the end of last week, Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Lyubov Sliska . True, then State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov said that so far “he sees no reason to raise the question of the resignation of Mikhail Fradkov’s cabinet.”

Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov himself convened a special cabinet meeting on Monday in connection with the protests.

After the meeting (about which there is no information yet), the ministers went to the president. And although many analysts threatened them with resignation, the president limited himself to advice to “think” and a number of proposals.

According to the latest data, the State Duma, to whose deputies Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov promised to report on March 2, 2005, is going to consider a draft resolution on the progress of implementing the law on preferential payments at a plenary session on January 21.