United Russia's new initiative to allocate seized assets to the Pension Fund would prolong the country's retirement system by a whopping 15 minutes

On September 6, United Russia introduced federal legislation that would allocate money seized in corruption cases to the country’s Pension Fund. According to Andrey Turchak, the acting secretary of the party’s General Council, the scheme could raise more than 1.2 billion rubles ($17.3 million) over the next six years, if state confiscations since 2012 are any indication.

In a national address on August 29, Vladimir Putin argued that Russia needs to raise its pension age because all alternative measures have been exhausted. According to the president, the daily operating cost for the country’s current retirement system is 20 billion rubles ($288.4 million). Introducing a progressive income tax, Putin said, would raise no more than 120 billion rubles ($1.7 billion), which would fund Russia’s pension payments for a mere six days. Selling federal property (such as some of the Pension Fund’s buildings), meanwhile, would similarly give the current retirement system just six extra days of runway, Putin said.

Based on the president’s calculations, United Russia’s initiative to raise 1.2 billion rubles for the pension system by reallocating corruption-case seizures would buy the country’s retirement system an extra 15 minutes.