SSecurity preview: Russian pensioners take to the streets in protest

SSecurity preview: Russian pensioners take to the streets in protest
Russian pensioners take to the streets in protest at
benefit cut

By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
The Independent (UK)
13 January 2005

Thousands of Russian pensioners staged protests across
the country yesterday against the abolition of generous
Soviet-era social benefits.

Though the demonstrations were peaceful, analysts said
the protests were the most serious in Russia since
1998, when disgruntled coal miners blocked railway
tracks in protest at unpaid wages.

Yesterday was the third consecutive day of
demonstrations, which have stretched from Russia's Far
East to Moscow itself and at times brought vital
transport arteries to a standstill.

On Monday, a crowd of elderly people blocked the
highway from Moscow's city centre to one of its main
international airports. Yesterday, they took their
protest to the towns of Samara, Izhevsk, Penza, Kursk
and Podol'sk.

The source of the pensioners' anger is a law that came
into force on 1 January, 14 years after the collapse of
the Soviet Union. The legislation replaced the existing
Communist-style social benefits with monthly cash
payments.

Many people who previously enjoyed free public
transport and medicine and heavily subsidised
accommodation have just realised that the good old days
have come to an end.

The new legislation, which is designed to save the
government billions of roubles and thus enable further
social and financial reform, affects 34 million
Russians (just over one quarter of the population).

Though some pensioners will be better off, many will
not. The "lucky ones" - about 14 million war veterans,
invalids and "heroes" of the Soviet Union and Russia -
have had their benefits replaced with cash payments of
between 350 roubles (£6.60) and 3,050 roubles a month,
which is financed by the federal government. These
pensioners will also retain their right to subsidised
housing and get a 450 rouble "social" allowance every
month.

However, some 20 million others, mostly ordinary
pensioners, have been less lucky and have watched in
horror as their decades-old perks have been swept away
at a stroke.

Their payments are paid out by regional authorities,
who have been told to start offering compensation at
just 200 roubles a month. To add insult to injury, many
pensioners say they have not yet received any
compensation this year.

Russian television has broadcast images of crowds of
angry elderly women squaring off against policemen. It
is the kind of negative PR the Kremlin could do
without.

Many brandished banners criticising Vladimir Putin, the
President, and demanding the full restoration of their
social benefits, particularly those relating to free
public transport and medicine. "We don't know where
laws like this come from and who thinks them up," a
female pensioner in Samara told a television reporter.

"Somebody just doesn't have enough money to buy a house
in the Canary Islands so they decided to buy it at the
expense of pensioners and stuff money into their
pockets. They have holes in their pockets, they never
have enough."

Another woman agreed. She said: "This compensation does
not compensate for anything. The rent is being
increased, the use of public transport has been
cancelled and what can you buy for 300 roubles?"

But the government is not backing down. It blames the
regional authorities for poor implementation and has
accused the Communist Party of being behind the
protests.

The government insists that the change is a necessary,
"well-balanced and fair" measure whose short-lived
discomfort will ultimately do wonders for the Russian
economy and sweep away an anachronistic hang-over from
the USSR. It has also vowed to investigate cases where
pensioners have been paid too little or too late.

The Russian parliament, which is controlled by Mr
Putin's United Russia Party, failed to approve a motion
by the Communists and the Motherland Party to review
the legislation yesterday.

In a poll carried out by the Ekho Moskvy radio station,
97 per cent of people blamed Mr Putin for the crisis.

A decision taken by Mr Putin earlier in the week to
overturn a ban on drinking beer in the street proved
more popular, but at the moment Russian pensioners are
busy drowning their sorrows.
                
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=600267



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