According to Rosstat, the average assigned pension in Russia in January 2023 amounted to 19,322 rubles, which is 14.4% more than in January 2022. But in fact, Russian pensioners have become even poorer. A year later, the ruble devalued significantly, and inflation has accelerated prices in recent years.
After a sharp depreciation of the national currency in July, the average pension dropped to $215. This is less than in many post-Soviet countries: almost three times lower than in neighboring Lithuania, and even less than in Kazakhstan, which Moscow considered a junior partner before the war.
Economist Vladislav Inozemtsev points out that, most likely, Russian pensioners have been poorer than Kazakh ones for a long time. “I think they have been poorer in recent years. Prices in Kazakhstan are lower than ours. With China, everything is more complicated, there, between cities and the countryside, there is a huge distance in the prices of everything. But Kazakhstan pensioners will definitely lose.”
Inostrantsev adds that the size of pensions indicates how long the state lives and how fair it is in terms of spending funds: “For Russia, this is especially important, because there is not even a hint of private pension savings here.”
At the same time, half of the men in Russia do not even live up to retirement. According to the chief freelance specialist of the Russian Ministry of Health Oleg Apolikhin, 52% of Russian men do not live to be 65 years old.
