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Russia has 503 WW II veterans over 100 years old

The majority of war veterans live in the Volga, Central and Northwest Federal Districts

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, May 5 (Itar-Tass) – Russia has more than 3.4 million veterans of World War II at present and 503 persons out of that number are more than 100 years old, Healthcare and Social Development Minister Tatiana Golikova said Saturday at a meeting of the Coordination Council for the Veterans’ Affairs.

“As for our dear veterans – and that’s the category of people covered by the Law on Veterans – their number totaled 3.4 million people as of January 1, 2012,” Golikova said. “Unfortunately, that’s a shrinking social category, as almost 136,000 war veterans left us in 2011.”

The majority of war veterans live in the Volga, Central and Northwest Federal Districts.

According to the Healthcare Ministry, 32.3% people in the war veterans category are 85 years old and older.

“One of the veterans living in Dagestan /a constituent region of the Russian Federation in North Caucasus – Itar-Tass/ is going to turn 116 years old July 1, 2012, and this means that his life has spanned three centuries,” Golikova said meaning that the person was born in 1896.

“Provision of pensions for this group of people exceeds the size of a regular retirement pension by a factor of 2.4,” she said. “Veterans with established wartime disabilities get a pension of over 30,000 rubles a month and veterans without disabilities get about 20,000 rubles.”

Widows of WW II veterans, too, get pensions of about 20,000 rubles, Golikova said.

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