Pensioner power spreads to Putin's back yard

Angry pensioners demanding that their social security benefits be restored staged a second day of protests in President Vladimir Putin’s home city, joining the call from protesters in other cities for him to resign.

It is the greatest public outburst of discontent since Putin took power five years ago. Top officials tried to shift blame yesterday, accusing regional authorities of failing to implement the Kremlin-sponsored social reform properly.

Although St Petersburg authorities promised to restore some benefits after 10,000 people flooded Russia’s second-largest city on Saturday, about 1,000 demonstrators returned yesterday to rally on central Nevsky Prospect, paralysing city traffic.

The protesters, most of them elderly, waved red flags, beat spoons against saucepans and chanted slogans calling for Putin to step down. “We are here to demand the right to life,” said Zhanna Filonova, 61. Dozens of police stood by, but did not intervene.

The protests, which have spread to cities across Russia’s 11 time zones, were triggered by a January 1 law that gives OAPs, the disabled and war veterans cash allowances instead of benefits such as free health care and transportation.

Many of the elderly, already feeling disenfranchised, considered the change a final insult after they were left struggling to survive on meagre pensions in inflationary and capitalist Russia when the state welfare system collapsed with the Soviet Union in 1991.

“Prices keep rising, and now they have cancelled our benefits,” said Yevgeniya Sidorova, 70. “Putin and his government want us to lie down and wait for death to come.”

Defending the social reform Bill, first deputy prime minister Alexander Zhukov and parliament speaker Boris Gryzlov blamed provincial authorities for the failure to deliver the promised cash stipends in full.

“It’s quite natural that people are angry,” Zhukov said on state-controlled Rossiya television last night.

Protesters say new monthly payments of about €7.85 are worth much less than the benefits, leaving them to have to choose between food, transport and medicine.

“It’s an outrage,” said Nina Kuzmina, 65. “The government must step down and face justice.”

Many pledged to keep protesting until benefits were returned and pensions were increased. An average monthly pension is now worth about €63.

The rallies across Russian cities, many of which involved blockades of key roads, have put new pressure on Putin, who has seen little public protest in his tenure during which most citizens have either supported or simply accepted the Kremlin’s initiatives.

Protests in the Volga River city of Samara went into a fifth day yesterday, and a rally in the southern city of Stavropol drew up to 5,000 people.

The rising tide of discontent prompted authorities in many regions to return some benefits. St Petersburg governor Valentina Matviyenko went on the city television station to promise subsidised travel passes.

Observers say the protests will probably intensify when people start receiving January utility bills, which will increase significantly without government subsidies.

The Kremlin has described the social reform as a long-overdue effort to streamline and modernise the economy, but many commentators predict now that Putin may respond to the crisis by firing his ministers.