September 27, 2018, 00:04 / Politics

The number of people wishing to protest against pension reform has dropped sharply

But the president failed to convince Russians that the reform was correct Elena Mukhametshina Alina Didkovskaya

The number of people approving the reform has increased slightly / Maxim Stulov / Vedomosti

The share of Russians willing to personally take part in mass protests against pension reform has dropped sharply over the past month, according to a September Levada Center survey. If in August 53% of respondents were ready to protest against raising the retirement age, then in September only 35% were ready to protest against raising the retirement age. At the same time, almost 40% of respondents believe that the proposals put forward by President Vladimir Putin in his televised address on August 29 do not change the parameters of the pension reform, another 25% believe that they even worsen it, and only 29% agree that they soften the original plans government. After the televised address, the attitude towards Putin himself also changed not for the better: 34% of those who were familiar with this speech began to treat the president worse and only 7% - better.

The number of people approving the reform has increased slightly, notes Levada Center sociologist Denis Volkov: “That is, it has generally become a little more acceptable. But if you look at the situation as a whole, Putin’s proposals did not change anything, and the attitude of a third of Russians towards him worsened after his address. They expected more from the president—that he would cancel the reform or slow it down, but this was not done.” Hesitations regarding protest activity must be treated with caution; now there has been a reconciliation with the reform, people have realized that the decision will not be overturned, the sociologist emphasizes: “There is dissatisfaction, but there is also a feeling that everything has already been done. In general, the reform greatly increased tension; it was a shock for people. They came to terms with it, but did not agree. However, the authorities have a margin of safety, the ratings are beginning to win back - the bottom in the assessment of the authorities has already been reached.” Further development of the situation depends on whether there will be increases in wages, pensions and economic growth - government ratings and the social well-being of citizens are related to this, Volkov adds: “Apparently, such shock decisions will no longer happen. At the same time, it is obvious that the population did not expect the pension reform and was not ready for it. The president promised something else during the elections, which is why the pension reform had such an impact on his ratings - it was recorded as a negative for the president.”

Reform without opposition

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the State Duma adopted a bill on raising the retirement age in the second reading: 326 deputies voted for it, 59 were against it, and one more abstained. The document provides for raising the retirement age for women from 55 to 60 years, for men - from 60 to 65 years. Some categories of the population will retain the right to early retirement. For example, women who have given birth to four children and raised them until the age of eight will be able to retire at age 56 with 15 years of work experience. Men with 42 years of work experience will be able to become pensioners at 63 years of age.

The discussion of the bill and the 324 amendments submitted to it took the deputies almost four hours. At first, they unanimously supported the president’s amendments, the key of which was raising the retirement age for women to 60 years instead of the 63 years planned by the government. Then the Duma majority, represented by United Russia, rejected about 270 amendments introduced by the opposition and individual deputies, including proposals by the LDPR and A Just Russia to postpone the reform. “There is no need to surround the State Duma with riot police; the people express their opinion through the voting results. There is no reliable data or figures to say that pension reform is overdue. The reform in its current form will not achieve its goal,” LDPR deputy Sergei Ivanov convinced his colleagues, explaining why the issue of raising the retirement age can be returned no earlier than in 20 years. Oleg Shein from A Just Russia said that Russia will get out of the demographic hole only after 2023, and pension reform should be discussed no earlier than 2033.

As a result, only United Russia deputies voted for the adoption of the bill. Nevertheless, the head of the faction of the party in power, Sergei Neverov, said that after public parliamentary hearings, consultations with experts, public organizations and deputies of regional parliaments, “the version of the bill that suits everyone today” was developed.

The negative attitude of Russians towards the pension reform was almost total from the very beginning, so it is almost impossible to radically change this situation from minus to plus, says Dmitry Badovsky, head of the ISEPI fund: “But no one set the task. Nevertheless, it is clear that the president’s appeal on pension reform was heard by society, and the amendments were accepted. The strongly negative attitude towards raising the retirement age has decreased, with almost 30% of respondents saying that Putin’s amendments have improved the concept of reform.” According to the expert, this was confirmed by the vote for the pension bill in the State Duma in the second reading. Putin’s amendments were supported by all factions, and the vote of the deputies present in the hall was unanimous, Badovsky emphasizes. Of course, there are those who say that the situation has worsened, he adds: “But here you need to understand the psychology of this response - many expected that the president might almost cancel the reform. Therefore, they perceive the inevitability of reform, confirmed by the president, as a deterioration.”

What do officials think about pension reform?

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FOR “We have been preparing for a long time to increase the retirement age and have only now approached this, including because conditions have been created to increase life expectancy under the 80+ program,” said Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at a government meeting when the bill on raising the retirement age was approved

/ Grigory Sysoev / TASS