Putin Has a Pension Problem
Russians have supported his behavior on the international stage, but a thorny domestic issue has put him on the defensive.
Novgorod in northwest Russia is about 100 miles south of Saint Petersburg. Men here die at a younger age than they could retire at under proposed reform legislation.
Photographer: Misha Friedman for BloombergRussia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 helped boost Vladimir Putin’s approval rating to stratospheric levels. Since then, he’s fueled an ongoing conflict in Ukraine, interfered with America’s elections and ordered strikes on behalf of the Assad regime in Syria. Through all of these foreign adventures, 87 percent of Russians continued to support him.
But those days may be coming to an end, and the reason is much closer to home. Putin has moved to change a critical benefit underlying Russian society: the state pension. His proposal, stealthily announced during this summer’s World Cup, hasn’t gone over well.