MOSCOW, February 1. /TASS/. Russia’s government has not made a decision to raise pension age, Minister of Labor and Social Protection Maxim Topilin said Wednesday.

"The government has not decided on increase of the retirement age," he said, adding that the ministry had not received "any requests and any deadlines regarding the issue."

"Probably, experts are involved in discussions and calculations. We don’t think the time has come for this," the Minister said.

Ivan Sleptsov, press secretary of Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, confirmed to TASS that "the government has not made any decisions regarding the retirement age."

According to Marita Nagoga, spokesperson for the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation (PFR), the fund has not received any requests to calculate the dynamics of expenses on pension payments in case of the retirement age is increased. "PFR has not been doing any calculations related to the decision on increase of the retirement age that has allegedly been made. Also, no such decision is in place," she said, adding that "the initiative is only an opinion of experts despite frequent discussions."

Earlier on Wednesday Izvestia daily wrote with reference to two sources close to the government that the final decision to raise the retirement age in Russia had been made. According to the newspaper, the government is currently working out details of the future reform and the announcement date. One of the options under consideration is a gradual increase of the pension age by six months every year, to go from the current 55 to 63 years for women and from 60 to 65 years for men, Izvestia said. The second option implies a hike to 63 years equally for men and women.