Thousands rally against Russian pension reform

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Russia’s major cities yesterday to demonstrate against a planned rise in the state pension age that has riled large swathes of the population.Trade unions, the Communist Party and left-wing groups mobilised their supporters in dozens of cities, including Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Vladivostok.Some demonstrators called for Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to step down over the controversial reforms, which would see men retire at 65 rather than 60, and women at 63 rather than 55 by 2034.The average life expectancy for a Russian man is 67, and 77 for a woman.“It’s not a reform, but a crime against the nation,” Communist Party head Gennady Zyuganov said at a march in central Moscow.Demonstrators in Moscow chanted “Pension-off Putin!” and carried banners with slogans including “We want to live on our pensions and not die at work.”As of January 2018, around 32% of Russia’s population are pensioners, roughly 46mn people.The average pension is $235 per month.The rare show of public opposition to a reform backed by President Vladimir Putin’s ruling party has seen 2.9mn sign a protest petition and the often compliant Communist Party vote against it.Putin, who did not mention the issue ahead of his re-election in March and had previously vowed not to raise the pension age, has seen trust in his presidency fall to 64% this month, down from 80% in May, according to VTsIOM state pollster.“Many believed Putin when he said there would be no pension reform. It turns out that was demagoguery. I’m very disappointed in him,” protester Irina Ivanova, 49, told AFP in Saint Petersburg.“You can live from your pension if you only spend money on food and somewhere to live, and you buy something to wear once every six months. It’s not enough for anything else,” Nadezhda, a 59-year-old pensioner, said at the Moscow protest.Those who oppose the reform argue that many Russians, particularly men, will not live to enjoy their pensions.Currently, Russian men on average die in their early 60s, Zyuganov said, and “they will all get their pension in their coffins”.In addition, many Russians say that employers are reluctant to hire older people.“How will we live? I don’t know. They don’t hire anyone over 50 years old,” said 59-year-old Galina Nikiforova in Saint Petersburg.Police said that around 6,500 demonstrators gathered at the Moscow protest, while organisers claimed there were tens of thousands.Reporters put the turnout much lower at around 10,000.Around 1,200 people protested in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, Tass state news agency reported, citing city hall.In Russia’s second largest city of Saint Petersburg, around 1,000 people took part in a Communist rally, with some waving red flags and holding portraits of Stalin.The law has been signed off by Russian parliament in its first reading, but amendments are still possible.Las week Putin said that he disliked the idea of raising the pension age but that doing nothing was not an option, insisting “we will have to take some crucial decisions”.The speaker of the lower house of parliament, representing Putin’s United Russia ruling party, said on Friday that such protests were pointless.“You can’t resolve these questions at demonstrations,” Vyacheslav Volodin told the Communist faction in parliament.Opposition leader Alexei Navalny has called on his supporters to attend an authorised rally against the pension reforms in Moscow this afternoon, organised by the little-known Libertarian Party.“We all understand perfectly: the only real aim of this ‘reform’ is to rob the public,” he wrote on his blog.