The issue of raising the retirement age in Russia should be removed from the agenda until at least 2030, Russian Deputy Health Minister Yury Voronin said on Tuesday.
"We consider that bringing up this issue before 2030 would be absolutely wrong. In order to solve this problem, we should first improve our [social] system," Voronin said in an interview with the Russia24 TV channel.
"The best option is to raise [the retirement age] by a month each year, or by two months maximum, but not by half a year or a year... this would cause opposition from the people," he said. A recent increase in the retirement age caused widespread social unrest in France.
The issue of increasing the retirement age, first raised a decade ago, has been increasingly discussed in the country during the past few years.
The retirement age in Russia is much lower than in other European countries. The majority of men are entitled to retire at 60 and women at 55. Miners, lumberjacks, pilots, cosmonauts as well as a dozen other specialists are entitled to retire still earlier.
About 2 percent of Russia's GDP has been spent on tackling the increasing budget deficit of Russia's Pension Fund, and advocates of an increase in the retirement age say it would help lower the figure and raise the average monthly pension allowance by about 30 percent.
However, given that the average life expectancy for Russian men is about 63 years, raising the retirement age would mean that many of them would just receive their pension for a few years or not live to receive it.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said last week that the retirement age in Ukraine, where the number of pensioners is about to draw level with the number of workers, will be increased.
"If we leave the retirement age as it is, we will not be able to maintain pensioners in a few years. We should take a brave decision," he said, adding that the raising of the retirement age should be implemented gradually.
Increasing the retirement age is among the conditions under which the International Monetary Fund has provided Ukraine with a $15-billion bailout. Yanukovych has proposed increasing the retirement age, which now stands at 55 for women and 60 for men, to 65 for both. The average life expectancy for men in Ukraine is about 61 years and nearly 73 for women.
MOSCOW, March 1 (RIA Novosti)
