| Pensioners corrected the government The government surrendered under the pressure of rallies and demonstrations of pensioners, which covered a significant part of Russia. Adjusting Federal Law No. 122 (on the monetization of benefits), which has become the most “famous” in the modern history of the country, will cost the federal government an additional 105 billion rubles.
As Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said yesterday at a conference call at the Russian Pension Fund, 90-100 billion rubles. will have to be spent on an unplanned increase in pensions by 200-240 rubles. from March 1 and another 5 billion to pay for travel for federal beneficiaries in urban and suburban transport. History is still silent about how much subsidizing transport fares will cost the regions. And what kind of help will they need from the center (besides 5 billion rubles) to reassure not only regional benefit recipients, but also ordinary pensioners and students, who in some regions of Russia until now also rode public transport for free.
However, so far the Minister of Finance, at least publicly, has shown exceptional confidence amid protest rallies continuing across the country. Yesterday, at a conference call at the Pension Fund, which was also attended by the Minister of Health and Social Development Mikhail Zurabov, senior officials of relevant ministries and heads of regional governments, Mr. Kudrin reassured, promised support, promoted and campaigned. Even the tireless speaker Mr. Zurabov somehow got lost against his background.
In fact, the two ministers arranged a “hands-free” session with the country to explain to representatives of the regions how they can put out the social “fire” associated with the travel of beneficiaries on public transport. And they became very carried away by this propaganda mission of theirs.
At the beginning of the meeting, Mikhail Zurabov proposed a scheme for overcoming the crisis. He said that the government has come up with a draft standard agreement that defines the procedure and conditions for providing a single social travel ticket for all types of transport - both urban and suburban. The agreement must be concluded between the territories and the center. It equalizes all beneficiaries - both regional and federal - with regard to travel on public transport. That is, the division into regional and federal beneficiaries in relation to transport, prescribed in Law No. 122, disappears as a class. According to Mr. Zurabov, the main thing that regional authorities must understand is that the cost of a single social travel card cannot exceed the cost of compensation for it. The difference between the real and reduced cost of a ticket, according to Zurabov, will be paid by the regional budget for regional benefit recipients, and the federal budget for federal ones. In other words, state subsidies to transport workers remain. And this is the main adjustment to Law No. 122.
The Minister of Finance was also forced to admit to a rollback from the provisions of the law. “We do not set a goal to stop subsidizing transport now,” he said. - But municipal transport ceases to exist. Under the old system, money did not reach transport workers. And today we must replace untargeted and uncalculated subsidies with transparent subsidies. This is an adjustment to the original plans."
“Adjustment to respond to people’s aspirations, easing,” the country’s chief financier did not mince words. Moreover, Mr. Kudrin did not even reproach the regional authorities, who introduced free travel on public transport for all pensioners and students. He said that this was understandable, that pensions were small, that in the old days it was necessary to somehow support people, so deputies of local parliaments made these decisions, which now backfired on the federal authorities. And now? Now, according to Mr. Kudrin, we have to pay.
Despite the soothing speeches of the country's chief financier, the country continued to worry. A representative of the Krasnodar administration directly told Mr. Kudrin: “We have all payments on time, and at the same time there are rallies. 500 thousand ordinary pensioners plus more than 400 thousand labor veterans.” And he added: “You have shifted the problem to the regions.” “Tell me, who paid for pensioners before?” - the minister asked. "Nobody. Who knows,” responded from Krasnodar. But Mr. Kudrin decided not to push his interlocutor to the wall, reminding once again that decisions on free travel are an initiative exclusively of regional authorities. He again delved into the center’s desire to help the regionals. And loans, and credits, and subsidies.
But with regard to rally activities, the main financier turned out to be harsh. He insisted in every possible way that the scale of protest sentiments was exaggerated. “A minority of pensioners took to the roads, several tens of thousands expressed their protest,” the chief financier actively repeated. True, just an hour later, according to his own words, there were suddenly more than a million of them. Quote: “In fact, 1% of the population expressed active protest.” It is known that the population of Russia is about 145 million, and if the Minister of Finance is doing well with the count, then 1% is 1.4 million people.
But no matter how much the chief financier underestimates the number of protesters, he quite realistically assesses that this protest is bad for him as a representative of the authorities, and for the government, and for the president. That is why Mr. Kudrin yesterday spoke about the dangerous line on which the country finds itself, about the blow that protesters are inflicting on the economies of their regions, about “political profiteers” and “inciters.” That is why he proposed to deal with the instigators, among whom he clearly sees political parties - presumably, the communists and Limonovites. “Pensioners are becoming a political coin in a political game,” Mr. Kudrin said. The minister-propagandist literally made a Freudian slip: amid the rampant monetization, which pensioner will not become a “coin”. However, something else is also true. The strong government is not looking for “speculators in the political game.” Vera KUZNETSOVA |
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