The pension reform measures proposed by the government cannot improve the welfare of Russian pensioners, which is extremely hard, and in some cases even catastrophic, said the leader of the Yabloko faction in the State Duma Grigory Yavlinsky at a meeting of the National Council for Pension Reform under the President of the Russian Federation held on April 17, 2001 in the Kremlin.

The leader of Yabloko noted that "the government proposes an administrative reform of the Pension Fund, rather than pension reform for our country." According to Grigory Yavlinsky, the main problem of the pensions reform is that, according to all the sources, only a maximum 6% of GDP is spent on pensioners. At such low expenditures (2.5 times lower than in any country of Eastern Europe) the administrative and organisational measures cannot produce considerable results.

At the meeting of the National Council, Yavlinsky proposed a programme containing seven urgent measures which could improve significantly the welfare of pensioners, which are as follows:

1. An increase in the share of GDP spent on pensioners by at least 12% already in the federal budget and the budget of the Pension Fund for 2002.

2. An increase in the financing of pensioners from the federal budget through taxies the collection of which is most effective (for example, as VAT, excise and sub-soil tax).

3. Introduction of a cumulative system exclusively for citizens under 40.

4. Abrupt reduction in the single social tax, in the minimum wage and redistribution of the burden on payments of the single social tax between the employer and the employee.

5. Development of a special system of measures to protect accumulated pensions from inflation, defaults and corruption.

6. Development and adoption of a special law on the procedure for investing pension savings.

7. Development and adoption of the Pension Code, which will regulate in a clear and understandable form for pensioners all the issues of pension laws.