The Real Russia. Today. Putin unveils his pension reform plan, Russia's election commissioner slams the ‘municipal filter,’ and Kadyrov's cabinet explains his latest outburst

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

This day in history. On August 29, 1949, the USSR detonated “RDS-1” in its first-ever nuclear weapon test. The test surprised the West, which estimated incorrectly that Soviet scientists were still several years from making an atomic bomb.

• Vladimir Putin unveils his plan to raise Russia's retirement age
• Russia's Finance Ministry says Putin's pension reforms will cost an extra 500 billion rubles
• Russia's central election commissioner says the ‘municipal filter’ is killing political competition
• The Chechen government says complaints about Ramzan Kadyrov's threat to ban human rights activists are ‘nonsense’
• The U.S. challenges Russia's response to new steel tariffs in the WTO
• Ukraine selects an absurdist film about its war-torn east for the next Academy Awards

Putin's plan 🧓

On August 29, Vladimir Putin finally came out openly in support of a federal initiative to raise Russia's retirement age from 60 to 65 for men, and from 55 to 60 for women. The president tweaked the State Duma's current plan, proposing a slightly smaller hike to women's pension age, but the bulk of the national address was about explaining the need for cutbacks to a nation that's come to expect a certain degree of paternalism from its government. Putin's speech was more than 3,100 words. For those without the time or inclination to dive into the original text, Meduza offers the following paraphrased summary.

The main reason for raising the retirement age is to ensure the system’s financial solvency and grow pensioners’ incomes. We’re in a demographic rut because of the Second World War and the 1990s, which is why there isn’t enough money to pay our pensions. I was against changing the system in the 2000s, and I still believe this was the right position, because our economy was weak. Since then, unemployment has declined and life expectancy has risen. The simplest thing for the state to do now would be to change nothing, but taking no action would require lowering pension payments. These payments are already modest, however, so how do you lower them?

The government has explored other options, but they offer only temporary relief. A progressive income tax or the sale of state property would buy us just a few more days to pay pensions, and additional taxes on the fuel and energy sector or the use of reserve funds would get us a few extra months. All this would be irresponsible to the country and to our children. We look after the women in our country, which is why I’m proposing that we raise women’s retirement age by just five years. I’m also proposing employment protections for workers near retirement age. We also need to think outside the box and develop a more advanced set of benefits. The government hasn’t dragged its feet on this issue; we simply weren’t ready for these measures before. But we can’t wait any longer. This decision isn’t easy, but it’s necessary. Please bear with us.

Want to know more about the details of Putin's pension reform proposals? Here you go.

But it's gonna cost you 💰

Vladimir Putin’s proposals for softening Russia’s plans to raise its retirement age would cost the federal government roughly 500 billion rubles (more than $7.3 billion) in additional spending over the next six years, according to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.

“This will require adjustments to our budgetary plans. This will require adjustments to projections of the Pension Fund’s budget, which we’re implementing over the coming three-year and six-year periods,” Siluanov told reporters.

Russia's miserable municipal filter 🗳️

A procedure known as the “municipal filter” (which requires people seeking candidacy for mayoral office to collect endorsements from 5-10 percent of their local city council members) is undermining Russia’s political competition, according to none other than Ella Pamfilova, the country’s central election commissioner. At a conference on August 29, Pamfilova accused unnamed officials of abusing administrative resources to “keep out inconvenient, competitive candidates.” She says her office, Russia’s Central Election Commission, is unfortunately unable to respond to these abuses, but she plans to raise the issue at a future meeting with a Kremlin working group.

Could Pamfilova’s criticism lead to reforms?

Not likely. Known as one of Russia’s “first-wave democrats,” Ella Pamfilova was appointed in March 2016 to serve as central election commissioner, replacing Vladimir Churov, who presided over a collapse of public confidence in the agency. Pamfilova has spent her career advocating human rights and promoting nongovernmental organizations, but never radically.

As Vladimir Putin’s human rights commissioner, she broached subjects like Syria War veterans’ rights and Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov’s violent threats, but as head of the federal election commission, she sanctioned the government’s refusal in December 2017 to register Alexey Navalny’s presidential candidacy. Whatever becomes of her push against the municipal filter, she’s not wrong that it diminishes Russia’s political competition. It’s also quite humiliating for the candidates, as you’ll learn in Meduza’s special report from Moscow this June.

Beware Chechnya's human rights terrorists 🤔

The Chechen government wants you to know that a letter to Vladimir Putin from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Front Line Defenders, complaining about Ramzan Kadyrov’s recent threats aimed at human rights activists, is in fact nothing more than “nonsense” and “a cry for attention.” According to Dzhambulat Umarov, a minister in Kadryov’s cabinet, the Chechen ruler’s announced ban on human rights activists only applies to “dishonest journalists” who come disguised as human rights activists to “slander” Chechnya.

Kadyrov’s spokesman told the newspaper Kommersant that the ruler had in mind “supporters of criminals who hide behind the name of human rights,” explaining that Kadyrov was talking about people who “carry out attacks and stab patrol officers in the back, killing innocent people.” You know: human rights activists. “Real human rights activists,” Kadyrov’s spokesman assures, are respected people who are welcome in Chechnya.

How did human rights get such a bad reputation with these people?

For obvious reasons, Chechnya’s authoritarian regime has no love for the intrepid activists and reporters who publicize the authorities’ human rights crimes. Kadyrov’s latest spat with independent journalists stems from the controversial drug-possession charges against Oyub Titiev, the head of the Memorial human rights group’s Grozny office. On August 22, Kadyrov said publicly that Titiev would be the last such activist allowed in Chechnya. “The same goes for terrorists and extremists,” Kadyrov said, lumping together all his enemies. “People calling themselves human rights activists have no right to be in my territory,” he said.

Two days before the speech, militants sponsored by the terrorist group ISIS attacked police officers in Grozny and the Shalinsky district. Afterwards, Chechen officials reportedly detained and interrogated as many as 200 teenagers about the attacks.

Trump takes Russia to WTO court ⚖️

The U.S. filed a complaint against Russia at the World Trade Organization on Wednesday, challenging a “special protective measure” imposed on American imports in response to Donald Trump’s recent tariffs on steel and aluminum. Washington says Moscow is breaking WTO rules because the additional duties apply only to U.S. imports, and not to goods from any other country, and because the rates of duty are higher than the maximum allowed under its WTO membership terms. Read the story at Reuters.

Ukraine's Oscar aspirations 🎞️

On August 29, Ukraine's Oscar Committee announced that it has selected Sergey Loznitsa’s film “Donbass” as the country’s entry for the Best Foreign-Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards. The movie has already won praise in Europe: at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, Loznitsa took home the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Director. “Donbass” shows life in the self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples’ Republics both during and after the war's most violent phase in 2014 and 2015. It was never screened in Russia, where a mid-July limited premiere was canceled after the Culture Ministry warned that the film failed to get a distribution license from the federal government.

Is the movie any good?

Meduza’s film critic, Anton Dolin, says the movie won’t please many Russian and Ukrainian viewers, but that doesn't make the motion picture any less frightening, paradoxical, or outstanding. Read his review here.