MOSCOW, March 20. /ITAR-TASS/. Pension rights of Crimean residents would be ensured in full extent, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets told reporters on Thursday. She added that state officials were considering options of how to set the pensions.

“Their rights will be provided fully,” she pledged. “We have several options, and they are being discussed. We will understand just within the next 2-3 days how to recalculate them,” she noted.

Golodets added that pensions of Crimean residents “will grow sharply”, because they were almost as half as Russian pensions now.

She added that it was difficult to say when this would happen, as deadlines were being discussed. Until recently, Crimean residents received social allowances from the old treasury department.

Expenditures on pensions to Crimean residents would total 36 billion rubles ($994.2 million) annually, the deputy prime minister said.

“Total expenditures of the pension system in Crimea and the Crimean city of Sevastopol attuned to our rules, recalculated in Russian rubles and brought in line with Russian legislation make 36 billion rubles annually,” Golodets added.