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Russian Prime Minister: No decision yet on raising retirement age

More than 90% of Russians oppose raising the retirement age

LIPETSK, August 30. /TASS/. The Russian government has not taken any decision to raise the retirement age yet, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday.

"A decision on this issue has not been made yet," he stated when meeting with senior citizens in the Sosnovy Bor Rehabilitation Center for the Disabled and the Elderly.

Prime Minister Medvedev noted that more than 90% of Russians oppose raising the retirement age.

Nonethelss, the possibility of such a measure is still being discussed, he added.

"But of course we should consider that, fortunately, life expectancy in our country is growing," the Prime Minister noted. According to him, when compared with statistics from several years ago, the average life expectancy for men in Russia was 59 years, now this figure has reached 67 years.

Pensions grow 15 times in last 15 years

According to the PM, pensions in Russia have grown 15 times in the last 15 years.

"Over the last 15 years, which is a relatively short term, as we see, pensions in our country have grown 15 times. It is easy to forget about it. It seems that it was the same 10 and 15 years ago. It was not! It was much more difficult," Medvedev said.

According to him, some pensions are still small and the authorities should improve pension legislation.

The head of the government noted that the number of pensioners in the world is growing.

"This means that people live longer. Only recently, when we started to work to improve the situation in healthcare, life expectancy for men in our country was lower, only 59 because of bad habits. It is a very sad figure, despite the fact that women lived much longer," he said.

According to him, thanks to the development of medicine and social services it became possible to increase life expectancy for men, while the average life expectancy for women has reached 77 years.

"That means that we are gradually moving up to the life expectancy level that exists in economically developed countries," he said.

Compensation is a fair solution

The premier added that payments worth 5,000 rubles ($77) to pensioners as compensation is a fair solution.

"When they say that it is not quite right and not very fair, I think it's absolutely fair," he said at a meeting with pensioners.