The average salaries for lecturers, teachers, doctors and cultural workers will be doubled by 2018, Russian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin said in a new article published in the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily on Monday.
“Discussion of any reforms in healthcare and education may only take place if these reforms ensure a worthy payment for the labor of professional public sector workers,” Putin said.
“Doctors, teachers, professors should get enough at their main job not to seek earnings on the side,” the premier wrote.
Each worker should have an opportunity to build his or her professional career, he added.
“Within 2013-2018, the average salary of professors and lecturers at higher educational establishments will be gradually doubled,” Putin said, adding that the goal for doctors and scientific workers by 2018 is the same: twice the average regional salary.
Putin served two terms as Russia’s president between 2000 and 2008, but was barred from standing for a third consecutive term by the Constitution. He became prime minister after his handpicked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, became president.
Putin is considered the most likely candidate to win the presidential election on March 4. However, some analysts say his declining popularity could see him forced into a runoff.
This is Putin’s fifth article in Russian media outlining the points of his election program. The previous articles focused on general problems, ethnic issues, economic problems and democracy.
