Approve, but reject – Newspaper Kommersant No. 10 (7455) dated 01/20/2023

The State Duma on Thursday rejected five bills at once on the return of the indexation of pensions of working pensioners, canceled in 2016. Opposition authors appealed to the Bible and the president, while United Russia members, in response, pointed to the lack of funding sources, although they agreed that it is still necessary to index payments to working pensioners. Oleg Smolin (KPRF) in this connection proposed to create an inter-factional group and work out the issue together with the government. He also considered it expedient to try again to send a request on this topic to the Constitutional Court: a year ago, only one signature was not enough for the Communists and Socialist-Revolutionaries.

Five alternative bills on the resumption of indexation of pensions for working pensioners were introduced by the LDPR and the Communist Party factions, the non-factional deputy Oksana Dmitrieva, as well as the parliaments of Khakassia and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The regions were asked to consider their documents without a report, but the authors-deputies flashed their eloquence.

“When the rule was introduced in 2016 to abolish the indexation of pensions for working pensioners, this was due to temporary difficulties,” recalled Yaroslav Nilov (LDPR). “But this is a permanent rule. Deputies repeatedly try to remove this norm and restore social justice.”

Oksana Dmitrieva referred to the Bible, where “it repeats three times: “Let everyone be rewarded according to his deeds””.

At the same time, freezing indexation is “not only not Christian, not fair, but also economically illiterate,” she assured, because since 2016 the number of working pensioners has more than halved – from 14.2 million to 6.9 million human. “And right now, the qualifications and labor skills that this generation has are most needed,” the deputy noted. “It was them, workers, engineers, who were expected, including at defense enterprises, in the year of a special military operation.”

Oleg Smolin recalled that the project of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is the third attempt by the communists to solve the problem of indexing the pensions of working pensioners. And he told a story about how, being a member of the working group on amending the Constitution, he directly asked Vladimir Putin whether the amendment on the indexation of pensions means that the pensions of both working and non-working pensioners will be indexed.

“I received a specific answer from the president: “You pass laws in the State Duma, as you decide, so be it.” Don’t shy away from responsibility!” Mr. Smolin called on his colleagues.

He also addressed United Russia separately: “The resumption of indexation would have enormous political consequences and would be a powerful factor in expanding the political base for the current government. Therefore, colleagues from the ruling party should be much more interested in this than colleagues from opposition factions.”

Svetlana Bessarab (United Russia), speaking on behalf of the profile committee on labor and social policy, did not argue with this and even admitted that “she herself would add additional arguments to those sounding from this rostrum.” But now, in her opinion, is not the time to make such decisions, although “you can break the applause and say that on paper we are raising pensions for everyone.” If in 2016 the decision to freeze indexation was made due to economic difficulties, even now the situation cannot be called favorable “taking into account the sanctions pressure on the Russian Federation and significant losses in the National Wealth Fund, from which the authors propose to take the very missing funds” , Mrs. Bessarab explained. She also said that her committee had asked the Accounts Chamber to provide “comprehensive information on budget losses,” and suggested waiting for an answer and, taking it into account, to return to the discussion of the indexation of pensions for working pensioners.

A Just Russia-For Truth (SRZP) deputy, Valery Gartung, in turn, asked the LDPR faction why it did not support the complaint prepared by the Social Revolutionaries to the Constitutional Court (CC) against the decision to cancel the indexation of pensions for working pensioners (a year ago SRZP and The Communist Party of the Russian Federation collected 89 of the required 90 signatures under this appeal). Yaroslav Nilov replied that he did not know how it ended then and whether there was any dialogue between the head of the SRHR, Sergei Mironov, and the then leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Such decisions should be made only after discussion by the leaders of the factions, “this is a matter of political culture,” the deputy is sure.

After the Duma rejected all five bills (they scored from 117 to 119 votes), Oleg Smolin proposed creating an inter-factional working group and discussing with the government whether the refusal to index the pensions of working pensioners is really beneficial, or is this the very situation when “the miser pays twice”.

He also spoke in favor of repeating the attempt to appeal to the Constitutional Court, “especially since everyone is in favor.” And Svetlana Bessarab, in her closing remarks, again agreed that it is necessary to index pensions, but “the question is in what parameters.” And this issue, in her opinion, can and should be discussed with the government. Recallthat a year ago, United Russia also assured that they were in favor of the return of indexation and were already negotiating with the government on this matter.

Ksenia Veretennikova