The pro-Kremlin party Pravoye Delo (Right Cause) has proposed increasing the retirement age, party member Boris Nadezhdin said on Friday.
"There are absolutely no economic grounds for the existing pension system," he said, pointing out the global "tendency" for an increase in the retirement age.
The retirement age in Russia is much lower than in other European countries - men are entitled to retire at 60 and women at 55.
Nadezhdin said it was entirely feasible for people to work after the age of 60, citing 66-year old Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, who "looks fine and will be able to lead the party for many years from now."
A rise in the retirement age is inevitable in the next 5-10 years, Nadezhdin said.
"Budget catastrophe and economic paralysis is the only alternative to this," he said
Russia's Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin earlier said that rising the retirement age would help bring down the increasing budget deficit of Russia's Pension Fund, currently at 1.3 trillion rubles.
However, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in August that the government was "not even going to consider" the issue.
MOSCOW, December 10 (RIA Novosti)
