New regions of the Russian Federation will switch to the Russian retirement age five years earlier

The transition period will end not in 2032, but in 2028

Residents of the new territories of Russia will retire at the same age as the rest of the Russians already in 2028: when finalizing the second reading of the bill on the features of pension provision in the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, it was proposed to reduce the transition period by five years.

The bill applies to those who permanently resided on the territory of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions as of September 30, 2022. As well as those who permanently resided on the territory of the DPR and LPR from May 2014 to September 2022 or on the territory of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions from February to September 2022, but then left for another Russian region. All of them from March 1, 2023 will be entitled to pensions under Russian rules. But – with features.

One of these features is caused by the need to solve the problem of the difference in retirement age. In Russia, the retirement age has been gradually increasing since 2019, now it is 57.5 years for women and 62.5 years for men, and the desired milestone of 60 years for women and 65 years for men will be reached by the beginning of 2028.

This year, according to the official website of the Pension and Social Insurance Fund, old-age pensions will not be accrued, and in 2024, women 58 years old (born in 1966) and men 63 years old (born in 1961) will receive the right to payments. But in the DPR and LPR, the retirement age is 55 years for women and 60 years for men, while in Zaporozhye and Kherson regions it is the same as in Ukraine: 60 years for everyone… The transition to the Russian pension system means that both women and men from the DPR and LPR will have to raise the bar for five years, and in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions it will rise only for men.

The document introduced by the government and adopted by the State Duma in the first reading promised those who in the period from January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2032 will reach the “regional” retirement age, the payment of pensions or pension payments “on the terms and in the manner” prescribed in local laws. “Until the date of the appointment of pensions under Russian law, citizens of the “new territories” will retain the right to regional pension payments in the same amount,” Andrey Pudov, deputy head of the Ministry of Labor, explained to the deputies.

However, the head of the Duma Committee on Labor and Social Policy, Yaroslav Nilov (LDPR), did not rule out that the year of the end of the transition period “could be adjusted.” And so it happened.

In the text approved on February 13 by the relevant committee and the government for the second reading, the transition period is reduced by five years and will end on December 31, 2027. Those who reach the age that now gives them the right to receive an old-age pension in accordance with the rules that were in force on the territory of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, “before the right to a pension arises under the legislation of the Russian Federation” (this clarification was made when finalizing the text) will be able to receive pensions or pension payments “on the terms and in the manner” prescribed in the laws of these constituent entities of the Russian Federation. From this wording, it follows that women from Zaporozhye and Kherson regions who have reached the current all-Russian retirement age will also be able to apply for the accrual of Russian pensions after March 1, but there are no clarifications on this yet.

The details of the transition period are still required to be clarified in regional regulations. Mr. Pudov said that three of the four new constituent entities of the Russian Federation had already adopted such acts. The website of the People’s Council of the LPR (local parliament), for example, indeed contains the text of the law adopted on January 30, 2023. The end date of the transition period is indicated exactly by the end of 2027: until this date, men will receive the right to a “regional” pension at 60 years old, and women at 55, but as they reach the current all-Russian retirement age (see above), they will be credited “Russian” pensions.

The bill will become law this week.