OREANDA-NEWS. January 19, 2011. Prime Minister Putin proposed establishing a government coordinating committee for veterans’ affairs. He noted that veterans’ problems should be addressed by authorities at all levels, adding that this requires a feedback system for veterans’ organisations in the interests of senior citizens.
Vladimir Putin’s opening address:

We are meeting today to review the results of our joint efforts in 2010 and to outline plans for 2011. Of course, it is impossible to speak about the problems of our senior citizens, our veterans, without your involvement, without the contribution of representatives of the leading veterans’ organisations and associations. You know the situation very well; you deal with the people directly. In fact, you live with these problems. This is why I thought it would be wise to meet with you today to discuss these problems.

Our key priority is improving the quality of life of our citizens, including, of course, veterans. This approach is outlined in the government’s action programme through 2012 and development strategy through 2020. A society’s attitude to senior citizens is an indicator of its social responsibility and the morality of its policies.

War, military service and labour veterans have done a lot for Russia; they have worked for the country their whole lives. We all know very well that common people have lived very modestly, in particular during Soviet times. People often worked without the hope of receiving financial benefits, honouring their responsibilities and doing their duty to the country. Actually, the older generation, our senior citizens have worked selflessly for the benefit of the country all their lives, fighting in wars when necessary. Today these respected citizens have the right to expect us to provide them with decent living conditions, to feel that the government will care for them.

There are over 40 million veterans and pensioners in the country. Supporting them is the unconditional duty of the government. This stance does not depend on the political situation. I want to emphasise this: this kind of attitude is completely independent of current political circumstances. During the global economic and financial crisis, we honoured our commitments to the people even though the government had fewer resources and more problems, including a budget deficit.

It should be said that up to 70% of federal budget spending in 2009 and 2010 was connected with social programmes and was spent on supporting the people, including senior citizens. We tried to do our utmost to mitigate the effects of the crisis, knowing that pensions and state allowances are the only source of income for many senior citizens.

I would like to point out again that Russia was the only country hit by the crisis to initiate large-scale pension reforms during this difficult period. As you know, other countries froze pensions and raised the pension age, whereas Russia increased pensions by nearly 45% in 2010.