(While I am not against monetarization in principle, this reform was carried out extremely stupidly. The Kremlin's making a lot of dumb moves lately.)
The Pensioners’ Revolt
by Sergei Borisov 17 January 2005
Russia’s senior citizens take to the streets in the greatest show of social unrest in years.
ULYANOVSK, Russia—It had long been predicted, but a bleak midwinter of discontent has truly set in. Russia might normally have been expected to be particularly merry after the traditional Orthodox Christmas break—this year extended by the Russian parliament—but instead President Vladimir Putin is facing the most vociferous and widespread protests of his five years in power.
When the United Russia majority in the State Duma in August passed a law replacing Soviet-era benefits for pensioners and invalids with cash payments, many critics predicted that its implementation would be miserable. The beginning of 2005 proved them right. The response so far could be the biggest social unrest since miners’ strikes in 1998 over wage arrears. Tens of thousands of Russia’s tens of millions of pensioners took to the streets last week in protest.
In theory, they enjoy the same benefits, only now they receive them in cash each month rather than on demand. However, after the protracted New Year holiday, millions of pensioners found the authorities could not give them the cash compensation, and, for the first time, the pensioners had to pay for transportation and medication. In many regions, compensation, even if paid, was less than the price of tickets. Pensioners did not find many subsidized medicines in drugstores, either. In the Altai region, people fainted while waiting in long queues for medication.
===== Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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