Man is this overstated. Switching over to monetized benefits is not eliminating "the last remnants of the Soviet-era socialist welfare system." It is, e.g., paying people money to take the metro instead of letting them take the metro free.
--- uvj at vsnl.com wrote:
> The Hindu
>
> Friday, Aug 06, 2004
>
> Russia scraps soviet era benefits
>
> By Vladimir Radyuhin
>
> MOSCOW: The Russian Parliament has approved a
> sweeping reform of social
> benefits that dismantles the last remnants of the
> Soviet-era socialist
> welfare system.
>
> The lower House, the State Duma, dominated by
> Kremlin loyalists, voted
> 309-118, with no abstentions, on Thursday to pass a
> raft of bills replacing
> free and subsidised services with cash payments. The
> benefits covered by the
> new law range from free transport for retirees,
> military servicemen and many
> public sector workers to free medication and
> vacations for war veterans and
> invalids. Under the law, the Federal Government will
> pay cash compensations
> equivalent from $25 to $120 to 13.6 million war
> veterans and invalids, and
> will shift responsibility for another 29 million of
> the most socially
> vulnerable to regional Governments.
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