On Friday, February 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on the indexation of military pensions.

The document was published on the Internet portal of legal information.

In 2022, seniority payments will be increased by 8.6% and will average 33.3 thousand rubles per month.

In total, the initiative should affect about 2.6 million military pensioners and persons equivalent to them.

We are talking about people who served in the internal affairs bodies, the National Guard, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and other law enforcement agencies.

The law signed by the President is retroactive and will come into effect on January 1.

It is assumed that the increased pensions for military personnel will be accrued already in March, along with an allowance for January and February.

Svetlana Bessarab, a member of the State Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs, spoke about this in an interview with RT.

“In total, more than 63 billion rubles will be allocated from the budget for these purposes in 2022.

Taking into account the inflation rate as of January 1, indexation will allow pensioners to maintain their purchasing power at the same level,” said Svetlana Bessarab.

As the deputy recalled, initially in 2022 it was planned to raise pensions for the military in Russia from October 1 and only by 4%.

However, the growth rate of consumer prices in the country turned out to be twice as high, and by the end of 2021, inflation was about 8.4%.

Against this background, on January 21, Vladimir Putin instructed the government to index payments ahead of schedule and ahead of schedule.

The corresponding draft law was presented by the Cabinet of Ministers on February 10, and later the document was approved by the State Duma and the Federation Council.

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Recall that since February in Russia pensions for civil pensioners have been indexed by 8.6%.

As a result, the country's average old-age insurance benefit for non-working Russians rose to almost 19 thousand rubles, and the fixed amount to 6.6 thousand rubles.

Also in February, taking into account the actual inflation for 2021 (by 8.4%), maternity capital and a number of other social benefits were indexed in Russia.

We are talking about material support for families with children, people with disabilities, injured at work and veterans.

In addition, since January 1, on behalf of Vladimir Putin, the minimum wage and the subsistence minimum have increased by 8.6% - up to 13.9 thousand and 12.7 thousand rubles, respectively.

According to authorities, the initiative should lead to an increase in salaries and social benefits for 19 million Russians.

“Additional indexation is of great importance, because in this way the authorities support consumer demand.

Consumer activity is growing, including among the low-income segments of the population, and the consumption of domestic products is increasing, which is especially important for the economy, ”Valery Mironov, deputy director of the HSE Development Center Institute, explained to RT.

It should be noted that in mid-February inflation in Russia further accelerated and reached 8.84%.

This is evidenced by the materials of Rosstat and the Ministry of Economic Development.

Moreover, experts interviewed by RT do not exclude that the indicator may increase further due to increased geopolitical tensions and fluctuations in the foreign exchange market.

Так, с начала февраля на фоне обострения ситуации вокруг Украины курсы доллара и евро выросли примерно на 7% и сейчас находятся вблизи 83 и 93 рублей соответственно. Для стабилизации обстановки на финансовом рынке Банк России уже одобрил комплекс мер. Вместе с тем, как полагают эксперты, инфляция будет оставаться высокой в ближайшее время.

«Поскольку импортные товары закупаются в валюте, ослабление курса рубля частично переносится в инфляцию. Эффект может быть разный, но мы можем увидеть ускорение роста цен по ряду товаров, в первую очередь зарубежных», — предположил Валерий Миронов.

Впрочем, при дальнейшем росте потребительски цен власти могут принять дополнительные меры для поддержки нуждающихся граждан, отметила Светлана Бессараб. По её словам, меры финансовой помощи регулируются в ручном режиме.

“Already today, against the backdrop of a difficult geopolitical shutdown, the government is developing a number of measures to support the population and enterprises.

So, yesterday, Vladimir Putin met with business representatives, where they discussed possible sanctions and the impact of restrictions already imposed on the Russian economy.

That is, people and businesses will not be left alone with their problems.

We have all the mechanisms and resources to maintain the income of the population, despite the complex global geopolitical processes,” the deputy concluded.