Evening Medusa

August 21st. Discussion of pension reform in the Duma: Mironov reads poetry, Zhirinovsky recalls Gaddafi

Hearings on raising the retirement age

The State Duma held a public discussion of the pension reform today. It was attended by representatives of trade unions, public organizations and economic experts. For the government that developed this reform, Labor Minister Maxim Topilin alone took the rap - Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his deputies did not find time to answer questions about the reform that was of interest to the whole country.

The meeting lasted 4.5 hours, but as expected did not bring anything new. Supporters of the adoption of the bill, as before, operated with numbers and emphasized that without raising the retirement age, the entire pension system would simply collapse.

Opponents of the reform put pressure on emotions: Gennady Zyuganov talked about "groans throughout the country" and offered to take money from the oligarchs, Sergei Mironov called the bill anti-people and recited poems about dying Russians . Well, Vladimir Zhirinovsky remembered Muammar Gaddafi and Petrosyan's divorce and predicted America's imminent end (don't ask).

The second reading of the bill (it will be adopted anyway, don't even hesitate) in the State Duma is scheduled for September.

Entering tanks in Prague: 50 years have passed

On August 21, 1968, the USSR and its allies sent troops into the territory of Czechoslovakia. The reason was the Prague Spring that began a few months earlier - an attempt by the leaders of the Czechoslovak Communist Party to liberalize the state system. In the course of one of the recent surveys, it turned out that in Russia have not heard anything 90% of young people under the age of 35 about this not the most beautiful event in Russian history. If suddenly this is about you, do not be lazy, read at least the Wikipedia article .

The entry of Soviet troops into Prague and the subsequent arrests, dismissals and forced mass emigration for a long time worsened the attitude of the inhabitants of the Czech Republic towards the USSR and Russia. Meduza special correspondent Konstantin Benyumov went to Prague and found out how the invasion of Soviet troops still affects the life of the country and the opinion of Czechs about Russians.

And also - look at the photos taken that day on the streets of Prague.

Don't write poems about pensions if you don't know how. Grisha Levchenko, Sasha Polivanov