Penza, 13 July 2018. PenzaNews. At the 10th extraordinary session held on July 13, the deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the Penza region who are members of the United Russia faction supported the project of the federal law "On amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation on the issues of the assignment and payment of pension", which provides for the increase of the retirement age.

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Initially, the issue was not listed on the agenda. Vice speaker of the regional parliament Sergei Egorov suggested that the issue should be considered noting that the initiative had already been discussed at the presidium meeting on July 6.

In turn, chairman of the regional Legislative Assembly, secretary of the regional department of United Russia Valery Lidin drew attention to that fact that another draft of the federal law "On the moratorium on the increase of the age, the reaching of which entitles to insurance old-age pension" initiated by the Communist Party and further supported by A Just Russia had been introduced before.

In the end, it was also included in the agenda of the session.

Speaking to colleagues, Valery Lidin emphasized the fact that the issue of the provision of pension security to citizens is one of the most important and significant issues.

"It was put forth due to changes in economic, social and demographic fields. The changes to pension legislation introduced by the government of the Russian Federation are being actively discussed nowadays in the society. Their main goal is to increase the size of pension with the indexation higher than inflation," the speaker of the regional parliament said.

He reminded that the bill on pension reform was not only supported by the deputies of the United Russia party at a session of the presidium of the Legislative Assembly of the Penza region but was also considered by members of the tripartite commission, at the meeting with heads of trade unions as well as at a meeting of the association of the industrialists of the region.

"At all point we have come to the conclusion that changes of the pension legislation are about to happen. We should do this considering wide discussion and development of reasonable proposals to improve the pension legislation," the leader of the Penza branch of United Russia said.

Then he suggested that deputies should express their opinion on the issue. For example, the people who supported the adoption of the bill included Victor Kondrashin, former senator, head of the department of History of Russia and Methodology of Teaching History of Russia of Penza State University; Vasily Chernyshov, chairman of the committee on economic policy of the regional parliament; rector of PSU Aleander Gulyakov; Olga Chistyakova, deputy director on social issues of LLC Dionis, head of the charitable foundation Caravan of Good Deeds; entrepreneur Nikolai Lukyanov, who is a founder of LLC Almaz, and other members of United Russia.

The presidium member of the Central Committee of CPRF, first secretary of the Penza regional committee of the party, head of the communist faction in the Legislative Assembly of the region, Georgy Kamnev, was strongly against the legislative initiative to increase the retirement age suggested by the Russian government.

He noted that “there are no figures in the bill that relate to finance”.

"Everyone is talking about the fact that there is not enough money in the pension fund, but neither its size, nor the deficit, nor how much will be saved due the introduction of this bill is indicated," the leader of Penza communists said.

According to him, the document should reflect what risk the society faces and what it may lead to in the future, but nothing of the kind is stated.

In addition, the chairman of the board of the Penza regional branch of A Just Russia, Valery Plakhuta, also expressed his opinion on the issue. He reminded that the party suggested an alternative variant of a pension reform, as well as demanded the cancellation of the transport tax, a tax reduction up to 3% for small businesses, and opposed the increase of VAT.

Head of the LDPR faction Alexander Vasilyev, who together with Georgy Kamnev and Valery Plakhuta had voted against support of a federal law providing for the increase of the retirement age at the meeting of the presidium of the Legislative Assembly on July 6, was absent at the session. According to information available to PenzaNews, he is on vacation.

Summarizing what had been said before the voting procedure, Valery Lidin once again drew the attention of MPs to public significance of the issue and urged them to continue discussion on the pension reform with citizens and to submit proposals of their own.

In the end, 28 representatives of United Russia supported the draft federal law "On amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation on the issues of the assignment and payment of pension", three MPs – communists Georgy Kamnev and Alexei Petrov, as well as representative of A Just Russia Valery Plakhuta – opposed it.

Then the bill on the moratorium on the increase of the retirement age was discussed. Valery Lidin urged his colleagues to accede to the decision of the presidium of the regional parliament, which did not support the initiative by a majority of votes. As a result, 29 deputies voted for the speaker's proposal, two MPs including Valery Plakuta, who told PenzaNews about his attitude – against it.

It remains unknown for what reason one of the two representatives of the Communist Party in the Penza Legislative Assembly supported the line of United Russia opposing the draft law on the moratorium on the increase of the retirement age initiated by his own party.

PenzaNews journalists did not manage to receive a comment of leader of Penza communists Georgy Kamnev yet.