The prestige of the state

Hundreds of thousands of fellow citizens live next to us, who have worked for the benefit of our common homeland for the whole of their lives - in the republics, which later became independent. And they also need pensions and documents about seniority.

Anton Gorelkin

The opinion of the State Duma deputy from Kuzbass Anton Gorelkin , especially for Taiga.info:

What do you think, if an official request came to the Russian Pension Fund, say, from the German Bundestag or the American Congress, our officials would answer foreigners? I am sure yes. Because both our employees are quite disciplined, and these countries, despite all political difficulties, are respected in Russia. But between the post -Soviet countries, respectful attitude towards Russia is not always accepted. And we are not talking about Estonia or Ukraine, but about a friendly, seemingly, Azerbaijan.

At the end of 2016, Valentina Evstigneevna Petrenko came to my reception of the State Duma. A citizen of Russia of advanced age. With the problem that made the most oppressive impression on me.

By age, Valentina Evstigneevna should have been retired for a long time. But she cannot issue a pension. Because the main place of residence and work in the Soviet years was the city of Baku, then the capital of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic.

In the former national outskirts of the USSR in the 90s there was a large rise in local nationalism. Then it seemed to everyone that without Russia they would flourish, and Azerbaijan did not become an exception. Discrimination on the ethnic principle of the official position of power there, of course, was not. But, in fact, Russians, Ukrainians, Jews - all representatives of the non -tile nation - were squeezed out of the country. It was not difficult to squeeze Valentina Evstigneevna: she lost her job, threatened to take away the apartment ... Selling everything acquired for nothing, an elderly woman, returned to her homeland, like many of our compatriots. And the homeland demanded documents. In particular, about the seniority of citizen Petrenko in another state, in another millennium, with a completely different state system.

The Pension Fund of Russia has no records of its work experience. Therefore, he cannot appoint a pension. And no one takes to work at this age. In fact, there is nothing to live.

Our PFR, of course, sent requests to Azerbaijan, but did not receive an answer. At all. Valentina Evstigneevna herself also wrote: both in the Azerbaijani government agencies and the enterprise where she worked. In response - silence.

And then a completely lost person sits in front of me in the office. Tired, exhausted, tries to tell about where she was addressing, and cannot - crying.

I know that there are a lot of people like Valentina Evstigneevna. They were literally thrown away, like the rubbish, the former outskirts of the USSR, and Russia accepted it completely wrong. And this situation exists, because our state in its foreign policy pays too little attention to this problem. No state in the world should ignore the official document coming from Russia. Moreover, a country located with the Russian Federation in a long partnership. This measured the prestige of our state, along with military power or political influence.

Valentina Petrenko came to the State Duma, so new, already parliamentary requests, in her case - already on the way to Azerbaijan.

Hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens live next to us, who have worked for the benefit of our common homeland all their lives - however, in the territories, which later became independent. These people have problems that they themselves are not able to solve, because we are talking about interstate relations, international document management.

So that each of them does not fight alone, does not invent this paper bicycle, our country needs a law that determines the procedure for the action of a citizen and the state itself in such a situation. And there must be clear demands in relation to neighboring countries. Mutual, of course, because there are people who worked in Russia, and then who left for them. And they also need pensions and documents about seniority. I plan to make such a legislative initiative and hope to support the public and colleagues.