Medvedev Says He’s Pleased to Learn Future Pension Size

(RIA Novosti – BLAGOVESHCHENSK, Bashkiria, July 3, 2013) ­ As Russian officials put the finishing touches on a new pension plan that would peg Russian citizens’ retirement money to their labor record and wages, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday that he was pleased to learn his future pension size was more than $2,000 a month.

Medvedev calculated his future pension during a visit to a local pension fund in the city of Blagoveshchensk in the Volga Republic of Bashkiria by using an online pension calculator recently launched by Russia’s Labor Ministry.

The calculator takes into account the citizen’s year of birth, earnings, labor record as well as whether he or she would work beyond the retirement age of 55 for women and 60 for men.

The pension fund staff suggested that Medvedev enter the figure of 100,000 rubles ($3,000) as his monthly wage, to which the premier said he would enter his real wage of 200,000 rubles. Medvedev also put that he would work 10 years after he reached his retirement age.

After the premier entered all the data, the online calculator showed a monthly pension of 70,000 rubles ($2,100), which the fund’s staff said was not bad.

“But this is not just bad, this is a huge pension,” Medvedev said, adding that the additional 10 years of work beyond retirement age played a big role in his future pension size.

A 70,000-ruble monthly pension hardly compares with Russia’s current average pension of about 10,000 rubles ($300) and average wages of about 30,000 rubles ($900) a month.

As the country’s population is aging and its workforce is expected to shrink, the Russian government is struggling to resolve the problem of where to find money to pay pensions for the growing number of retirees. Encouraging Russians to continue working after their retirement is seen as an alternative to raising the retirement age.