Vergennes
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2014
- Messages
- 8,576
- Reaction score
- 61
- Country
- Location
Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a bill on Wednesday raising the retirement age by five years following public outcry that saw his approval rating plummet.
Mr Putin’s raise of the retirement age to 65 for men and 60 for women, which the upper house voted for earlier on Wednesday, is the most controversial domestic measure the Kremlin has pushed through in years.
Seen as a crucial step in making structural changes to the economy, the measure is wildly unpopular in a country where male life expectancy is 67 and has proven a stern test of Mr Putin’s ability to govern freely.
After the measure was announced in June, Mr Putin’s approval rating plummeted to 67 per cent, its lowest since the annexation of Crimea, as people protested across the country.
Mr Putin, who kept his distance from the reform for two months, responded in August by rolling back an original plan to raise the retirement age to 63 for women, guaranteeing annual increases that would raise pension levels by more than 40 per cent by the end of his presidential term in 2024, and offering extra social benefits for people on the verge of retirement.
United Russia, his governing party, suffered its worst electoral results in years last month on the back of the reform, losing governors’ races in two provinces and facing fresh elections in two others after Kremlin candidates performed poorly.
https://www.ft.com/content/169fc9ce-c728-11e8-ba8f-ee390057b8c9
Mr Putin’s raise of the retirement age to 65 for men and 60 for women, which the upper house voted for earlier on Wednesday, is the most controversial domestic measure the Kremlin has pushed through in years.
Seen as a crucial step in making structural changes to the economy, the measure is wildly unpopular in a country where male life expectancy is 67 and has proven a stern test of Mr Putin’s ability to govern freely.
After the measure was announced in June, Mr Putin’s approval rating plummeted to 67 per cent, its lowest since the annexation of Crimea, as people protested across the country.
Mr Putin, who kept his distance from the reform for two months, responded in August by rolling back an original plan to raise the retirement age to 63 for women, guaranteeing annual increases that would raise pension levels by more than 40 per cent by the end of his presidential term in 2024, and offering extra social benefits for people on the verge of retirement.
United Russia, his governing party, suffered its worst electoral results in years last month on the back of the reform, losing governors’ races in two provinces and facing fresh elections in two others after Kremlin candidates performed poorly.
https://www.ft.com/content/169fc9ce-c728-11e8-ba8f-ee390057b8c9
