2018 Russian pension protests

2018 Russian pension protests
Action against the planned pension reform in Hyde-Park Moscow on 18 July
Date	1 July 2018 18 July 2018 28-29 July 2018 2 September 2018 9 September 2018 22 September 2018
Location	Cities all over Russia
Caused by	Raising the retirement age
Goals	Cancellation of raising the retirement age Resignation of Vladimir Putin and government
Methods	Demonstration, procession, rally, Internet activity, etc.
Status	Retirement age raising reduced from 63 to 60 for women Protests ongoing
Parties to the civil conflict
Russian opposition Communist Party Left Front Progress Party PARNAS Solidarnost[1] Anti-Corruption Foundation Libertarian Party A Just Russia Russian government National Guard MVD Police OMON United Russia
Lead figures
Gennady Zyuganov Sergey Udaltsov Alexei Navalny Oleg Shein Yevgeny Roizman Vladimir Putin Dmitry Medvedev Sergey Neverov
Number
Unknown
Casualties
Injuries	2

The 2018 Russian pension protests are a series of countrywide protest actions and demonstrations in the Russian Federation, with the major requirements of abandoning the planned retirement age hike. Such a plan of the pension reform was unexpectedly announced by the Government of Russia on June 14, 2018 which was the opening day of the World soccer championship.^[2] During the tournament, any demonstrations were prohibited from security reasons, but afterwards (from July 2018, ongoing) thousands of Russians expressed their negative opinon on the reform of the pension system. The rallies against the plans and other actions were mostly organized by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and A Just Russia party.^[3] However many other political parties, trade unions and individuals (including Alexey Navalny) also contributed to coordination of these protests.

An intention to hike the retirement age has drastically downed the rating of the president Vladimir Putin and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev in Russia. So in July 2018, just 49% would vote for Putin if the presidential elections were held in that moment (while during the elections in March, he got 76,7%).^[4][5]

Background

On June 14, 2018, using a start of the FIFA World Cup as a cover, the Russian government announced the plan of the pension reform presuming a substantial increase of the retirement age (for men from 60 to 65 and for women from 55 to 63)^[2]. Previously, until the Russian presidential election, 2018, this thema was practically silenced, in particular several days before the election the RIA Novosti agency published an article denying existence of any intentions to raise the pension age until 2030^[6]. In the previous years the problem was sporadically discussed but with no special accent. So an announcement of the reform plan by Prime Minister Medvedev has shocked the majority of Russian citizens.

Immediate protests during the World Cup were, however, not allowed (except Internet-activism) from security reasons. Anyway the soccer mood was totally spoiled — and the pension reform became the central question in Russia at that time. The street protest actions were appointed for the end-July and subsequent months. Most of people got into a deep despair, except those who became pensioned earlier. The government was accused of misusing soccer for hiding the unpopular measures. Near 90 % of Russian citizens are not consent with the reform.

On July 19, during the first reading of the corresponding bill in the Duma, the pro-Putin political party United Russia (with a single exception of Natalia Poklonskaya) has supported the retirement age hike, while all the opposition fractions, left-wing and liberal, were against it.^[7]

Key protest events

July-August 2018

Anti-reform action on 28 July in Moscow

The first noteworthy street rallies, related with the retirement-age reform, proceeded on July 1. Several thousand people protested across Russia against an extremely unpopular government decision to hike the pension age that has led to a record slump in President Vladimir Putin's approval ratings. No protests were held in World Cup host cities due to a regulation banning protest in the cities for the duration of the tournament.^{[8][9][10][11]}

From Mid-July, protest rallies and demonstrations were organized practically every weekend, and sometimes also on working days. They occurred in nearly all major cities countrywide including Novosibirsk, Saint-Petersburg and Moscow. Total number of participants exceeded 200 thousands. These events were coordinated by all opposition parties, who usually have nothing common in political affairs. Also trade unions and individual politicians (Alexey Navalny, Sergey Udaltsov) functioned as organizers of the public actions. The largest protest events of the summer occurred on July 18 and July 28-29.^[12] In particular, on July 28, more than 10,000 people attended a rally in the capital, Moscow.^[7] Also on August 2, about 9,000 people attended a rally against the governmental plans to increase the retirement age.^[3]

September 2018

Rally against the pension reform in Moscow (2 September, organized by the Communist party)

On September 2, large-scale anti-reform manifestations were led by the Russian communists and some other left-wing oppositional political forces.^[13]

A week later, on September 9, the demonstrations against the plans to raise the national retirement age were organized by Alexey Navalny all over Russia. The events occurred in more than 80 cities including the capital. The most of actions were not permitted by the authorities, and the police detained in total about 1000 participants.^[14][15] Beyond the anti-reform slogans, the participants chanted "Russia without Putin" and held signs with messages like "Putin, when will you go on pension?".^[16]

Further rallies were announced for every Saturday or Sunday of September 2018. So, on September 22, the countrywide protest actions were organized by the Communist party. In Moscow, several thousands demanded abandoning the pension reform and blamed the Russian government for this unpopular initiative.^[17][18]

Reaction of authorities

The president of Russia Vladimir Putin has decided to reduce the hike of the retirement age for women from 63 to 60 years (i.e. +5 instead of +8). Also some other softenings were foreseen, e.g. for women having 3 and more children.^[19] Nevertheless the opposition forces and the overwhelming majority of ordinary Russians estimated the presidential changes as by far insufficient and were disappointed at his decision. So in addition to the requriement of abandoning the reform in general and of the resignation of the Government, also the requirement of resignation of Vladimir Putin was raised.^[20]

Despite the protests, on September 26, the bill passed on a second reading in the parliament.^[21] Finally, Putin signed the pension bill into law on October 3.^[22]

See also

• 2017–2018 Russian protests

References