The Labor Ministry is planning a ‘retraining program’ for ‘pre-retirement-age’ Russians, but nobody knows what that means

Labor Minister Maxim Topilin told the State Duma’s Budget and Taxes Committee on Monday that the government will launch a program to retrain people of “pre-retirement age,” though nobody is quite sure what “pre-retirement age” is. Topilin says the government is planning to allocate about 5 billion rubles ($80.4 million) a year to the project.

The country’s ruling political party, United Russia, previously introduced the concept of “pre-retirement age,” proposing “additional social guarantees” for this group. But party officials haven’t actually specified what age group should be considered “pre-retirement.”

In June, the Russian government submitted draft legislation to the State Duma, establishing a plan to raise the country’s retirement age from 60 to 65 for men by 2028, and from 55 to 63 for women by 2034. Public opinion polls show that Russians largely oppose this proposal, and one of the most common objections is that people fear they won’t live to collect their pensions under the new system.