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Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech to the nation on Wednesday (August 29th) about a controversial pension reform in the country. Sputnik / Alexei Druzhinin / Kremlin via REUTERS

The Russian president is partially retreating on his highly unpopular pension reform. The initial text presented in June provided for the retirement age of 55 to 63 for women and 60 to 65 for men. But in the face of the numerous demonstrations and his fall in popularity, Vladimir Putin decided to put some water in his wine.

It is an explosive bill in Russia. And for good reason, raising the retirement age of eight years for women and five years for men is far from trivial. The text was presented on June 14, the launching day of the football World Cup. But not enough to discourage his detractors, who say that many Russians, including men - whose life expectancy peaks at 66 years - can hardly enjoy their retirement.

Thousands of people have already beaten the pavement , especially at the call of the Communist Party. The main opponent of the Kremlin, Alexei Navalny , sentenced Monday to 30 days in prison, also called to protest against this bill on September 9, the day of regional and municipal elections in Russia.

Vladimir Putin did not mention the issue of pensions during the campaign that led to his reelection in March and had distanced himself by letting the government endorse the reform. Its popularity rating, usually at very high levels, dropped to 64 percent in July from 80 percent in May, according to the Russian Center for Opinion Studies (VTsIOM).

Calming measures

To ease tensions, Vladimir Putin therefore decided to relax the bill, proposing to raise the age of departure for women to 60 years - instead of 63 in the original text and 55 currently. The increase in the retirement age for men remains unchanged at age 65, compared with 60 currently.

The Russian president also suggested early retirement for mothers from large families, the maintenance of benefits for certain professions such as minors and the introduction of criminal sanctions for companies laying off employees close to retirement age.

Caution

In this address to the nation, Vladimir Putin has also long defended and justified the bill. " In the long run, if we are hesitant today, it can threaten the stability of society and the security of the country, " he said.

Without reform, " we will sooner or later destroy our finances, we will be forced to embroil in debt or print money without provisions, with the resulting consequences : hyperinflation and rising poverty, " hammered the Russian President, believing that the current imbalance in the pension system was a direct consequence of the losses of the Second World War and the economic and social chaos of the 1990s.

In an article posted on his website after the president's announcement, Alexei Navalny said that " Putin is panicking and trying to get the pill ". The opponent again calls the Russians to protest.

It was a bit expected, because it was felt mounting discontent important (...) It must be said that there were many critics, both on how this law had been announced, prepared or poorly prepared. The demographers said that anyway, few retirees could benefit because their life expectancy after work remained low ... There was a lot of very complicated and very mobilizing debates.

Jean Radvanyi Professor at the National Institute of Oriental Languages ​​(Inalco) 29/08/2018 - by Juliette Gheerbrant Listen