Paul
Goble
Staunton, May 18 – At present,
according to official Russian government statistics, 39 percent of Russians die
before reaching the age at which they can receive a pension (ru-mir.net/2018/05/15/39-rossiyan-ne-dozhivayut-do-60-let/). If Moscow
as expected raises the retirement age to 65, far more will die before then.
Indeed,
using Rosstat life expectancy tables, a majority of Russian men in 38 of the
country’s 85 (including occupied Crimea and Sebastopol) regions will die before
being entitled to claim a pension, with most of those being in predominantly
ethnic Russian areas (vologda-poisk.ru/people-news/обо-всём/v-kakih-regionah-bolee-poloviny-muzhchin-ne-dozhivut-do-pensii).
Opposition leaders have already come
out against such a boost in the retirement age (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/52600),
but perhaps more seriously, some analysts now say that such an action could lead
to a revolt precisely among older Russians who up to now form the core of the Putin
majority (babr24.com/msk/?IDE=176690).
Even if such
predictions are overstated, that could present the regime with a problem
especially if it becomes obvious that raising the retirement age will
disproportionately benefit Moscow and other large cities and non-Russian and
especially non-Orthodox (that is, Muslim) groups.
Indeed, ethnic Russians may view any
such government raising of the pension age as part and parcel of a continuing
Moscow-orchestrated genocide of the Russian people, a perspective promoted by
many Russian nationalist groups and one that could empower them, something especially
dangerous given their greater willingness to use violence.
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