© Vladimir Fedorenko / SputnikRussian State Duma's plenary session
The news was announced on Monday afternoon by the chairman of the committee, MP Oleg Nilov (Fair Russia). Nilov also told reporters that the State Duma can have the second reading into the bill on raising the retirement age already on Wednesday, September 26.
In mid-June the State Duma approved the controversial bill in the first reading. The original draft of the motion ordered a gradual increase in the retirement age from 60 to 65 years for men, and from 55 to 63 for women with planned completion of the transition set at 2028 for men, and 2034 for women.
The news was met with widespread criticism and caused a wave of protests in mass media, legislatures and on Russian streets. The situation even required an intervention on the part of President Vladimir Putin who made a special televised address to the nation on August 29, asking ordinary people to understand the necessity of the reform and also proposing some changes that could soften its impact, at least for the most vulnerable groups of citizens.
In particular, the president proposed to introduce a special category of citizens of pre-retirement age which will be five years ahead of the set retirement age. Such people would enjoy additional guarantees of employment as companies will be punished for sacking or not hiring them without very valid reasons. The president also said that the planned retirement age increase for women should be brought down to five years instead of eight, proposed that pensioners keep all current tax benefits until the reform is fully completed and offering additional payments to some categories, like pensioners who reside in remote rural areas.
In mid-September the Lower House voted to include the presidential amendments in the pension reform bill.
Comment: Putin was open with the Russian people about the issues facing the pension system. Through patient dialogue, a bill that will address the problems while mitigating the negative impacts on ordinary people was worked out. Would the US would take a page from Putin's approach.