Penza, 18 July 2018. PenzaNews. Representatives of the regional establishment continue to discuss the attitude of the Legislative Assembly member from the United Russia faction, Oleg Kochetkov, on the proposed increase of the retirement age, which got to the centre of public attention after the website of the advertising and news agency PenzaSMI, founded by the company Optimist that belongs to the deputy, corrected his opinion about the upcoming reform expressed by him as a result of the meeting of the workers' association of the enterprise StankoMashStroy headed by him.

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After the meeting, where Oleg Kochetkov had also invited civil activist, member of the party A Just Russia Igor Alexeev so that people could know the opinion of an opposition representative, the participants of the discussion were invited to vote by secret ballot in favour of the initiative suggested by the government of the Russian Federation or to speak against. The industrialist reported about the results on Facebook.

"In the evening we held a meeting with the team and voted. The result is: 68 – against, 3 – for, 4 – undecided. My vote was against. People are not ready for change in difficult times. I cannot let my team down," the Kommersant newspaper quotes the post from Oleg Kochetkov's profile.

According to the federal medium, on the same day the news agency PenzaSMI published an article quoting the words of the general director of LLC StankoMashStroy stating that "the project of the pension reform has not been well elaborated yet" and "the increase of the retirement age is a premature decision". Some time later, the article disappeared from the website, but soon reappeared with a milder wording — "the pension reform cannot be put off and it must be adopted" but "the project needs to be worked out".

The opinion on the urgent issue originally expressed by Oleg Kochetkov on a social network is also unavailable now: as of 16.00 Monday, July 18, his Facebook profile was deactivated.

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The incident caused a strong reaction in the mass media and social networks, where different opinions on what could induce the United Russia member and manufacturer to adjust his position are discussed. In addition, there are assumptions made on how the incident will affect his future political career.

Oleg Kochetkov refused to comment on the situation to PenzaNews.

As it was reported before, 39-year-old Oleg Kochetkov has been the head of LLC StankoMashStroy since 2014, he is the deputy chairman of the Penza regional branch of the Russian Engineering Union.

On September 10, 2017, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Penza region of the sixth convocation representing the United Russia faction. He also performs the functions of the deputy chairman of the Economic Policy Committee.

On December 4, 2017, he was introduced to the political council of the regional United Russia office, then was elected to the presidium of the regional political council of the party.

Since February 2018, he has been the regional coordinator of the project Engines of Growth implemented by United Russia.