Statement by Yabloko’s Bureau

Press Release, 21.06.2018

The Federal Bureau of the Yabloko party adopted a statement on the government’s initiative to raise the retirement age. The statement runs that President Putin is really responsible for the consequences of the reform. As an alternative, Yabloko proposes to implement the proposals outlined in the presidential programme of Grigory Yavlinsky, in particular, to replenish the Pension Fund through contributions of corporations with state participation engaged in the extraction and sale of natural resources. The statement runs that under the present situation Yabloko supports the protest actions against the government’s reform, and recommends its regional and local branches to organise such actions and support independent trade unions. Yabloko became the first political party that held street actions against raising the retirement age, despite the current ban on pickets and rallies.

STATEMENT BY YABLOKO’S BUREAU

The President and the Government have once again engaged in raising the retirement age and pension reform. This time, it is obvious that the percentage drawn to Putin in the [presidential] election gives him the opportunity to implement any unpopular actions and the people will endure it all: raising the retirement age, and raising the VAT, and rise of the fuel prices. And then once again another performance will be played [for the people] about a bad government offering a terrible reform, and a kind President who will take off a couple of years from the raised [retirement] age.

The Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko formulated its position eight years ago: “We are categorically against the raise of the retirement age until the minimum wage in the country is raised by 2 – 3 times, until mechanisms are introduced so that to increase the employee’s interest in receiving officially declared salaries, until unemployment is significantly reduced, and the average life expectancy is raised to the European level.”

We believe that it is immoral to raise one’s pensions by means of deprivation of the right to retire for others.

Low pensions are a consequence of the failure of the economic policy of the President and the Government. Wages in Russia are several times less than wages in the developed countries at the same, and sometimes even higher, level of prices. A significant part of wages is paid in envelopes “under the table”, and the employee and the employer are interested in deceiving, as they think, the state that has been repeatedly deceived them. But in reality an employee who, when retiring, receives a pittance, turns out to be the one who was deceived.

We believe that raising the retirement age will not solve the problem that the authorities would like to solve: the replenishment of the Pension Fund’s budget and saving it from bankruptcy without the state aid. A temporary increase in the contributions to the Pension Fund in a stagnant economy will be eaten up by an increase in payments in the future and a change in the structure of employment. In the situation of low labour productivity, predatory taxes and an non-transparent pension system, when the employee does not understand what kind of pension he/she can receive, if he/she survives to the raised retirement age, the state can not rely on the honesty of employers and employees.

The increase in the retirement age under the present situation will entail the following consequences:

• drop in living standards of the population and increase in the gap between the poorest and the richest part of the population;
• growth of unemployment, slowdown in economic development and decline in labour productivity;
• increase in the number of accidents, man-made disasters, injuries caused by high-risk sources, since persons serving high-risk sources whose attention and perception have been weakened due to age, will be forced to continue their work;
• increase in the immigration of persons of the working age to other countries with a higher level of wages, pensions and longer life expectancy;
• increase in mortality and increase in applications for a disability pension by people suffering from chronic diseases or the consequences of injuries, but who did not apply for a disability pension counting on the pension in view of retirement by age;

The Bureau of the Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko is confident that the solution for the pension problem was set out in the presidential programme of Grigory Yavlinsky. This is a significant acceleration of the economy and introduction of a guaranteed basic income for pensioners, which must be paid to them from the federal budget, while the latter gets incomes from the sale of natural resources, in addition to the pension paid from the Pension Fund. At present such a basic income can amount to 8,000 – 9,000 roubles.

Emilia Slabunova,

Chair, Yabloko