Russia & CIS

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to Captains Regent of the Republic of San Marino Stefano Palmieri and Matteo Ciacci.

The residents of several communities in Armenia’s Armavir Province on Tuesday are staging a protest.

OSCE chairman-in-office Thomas Greminger will pay a visit to Azerbaijan.

Within the framework of the initial military training, the first-year cadets of the Azerbaijan Military Academy named after Heydar Aliyev conduct shooting exercises, using small arms.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan Taro Kono will be on an official visit to Republic of Azerbaijan on September 5-6, 2018.

President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev have played the game of bad cop and good cop in their efforts to explain the essence of the pension reform to the people of Russia. Putin's behaviour in relation to the prime minister looks unethical, just as it looks wrong in relation to his electors. It appears that Putin may eventually lose control of the patriotic idea - the only idea that still helps him stay in his office. After the president's televised address to the nation on August 29, it became clear that it was Putin who initiated the pension reform in Russia. This is evidenced by his harsh affirmation about the lack of alternatives to the reform. Until recently, however, Putin tried to distance himself from his government, which he had allegedly commissioned to develop and implement the unpopular reform. As a result, Medvedev failed to handle the psychological burden and disappeared from the public eye for a while. When he reappeared in front of the cameras, one could see him as a tired and sick person.Putin is being unethical towards his voters as well. Putin's voter is commonly known in Russia as "vatnik", who values Putin's achievements in building the Russian world, limiting the influence of American globalism and oligarchic structures.During the above-mentioned speech, Putin referred to experts twice without naming them. Apparently, it goes about Alexei Kudrin, experts of the Higher School of Economics - liberal, pro-Western people, whom Putin's voters despise. Thus, Putin has shown disrespect to his electors in a hope that people are ignorant and they do not need to know any names. Addressing the nation with his speech, Putin said: "Even if we sell all buildings of the Pension Fund, the money will be enough only for a few months. And then what?" However, we understand that it goes about all the knick-knacks, apartments and plots of land that our fat officials, MPs and oligarchs have. Putin clearly gave it to understand that he would never rip epaulettes off their shoulders. As a matter of fact, we do not understand now what makes Putin different from late Boris Yeltsin, who also entrusted everything to "Chicago boys" and plunged the country into chaos. We can see Putin threatening us now that the system will not have money for pensions in six or seven years if everything remains the same. The first reason for the looming crisis, as Putin says, is demography. "In 2005, the ratio of working citizens, who replenish the Pension Fund regularly, and citizens receiving old-age insurance pensions, is nearly 1.7 to one, but in 2019,  it will be 1.2 to one," Putin said noting that life expectancy in Russia had increased by eight years.The trend is the same in Western countries. Robots continue to replace humans depriving them of jobs, but the pension system in the West is far from collapsing. In Western countries, the pension fund gets replenished through the growth in people's wages and, accordingly, deductions to the budget. The most surprising thing is that such a system works identically in Russia too, although officials tend to conceal it in order to speculate on the topic of who feeds whom. Thus, the average Russian citizen during his work service of 20 years and an average salary of 40,000 rubles gives away about 2.4 million rubles to the Pension Fund. Russian male pensioners live for an average of eight years, during which they receive back only 1.600 million, and the state keeps the remaining 800,000 rubles in the budget. No one knows what that money goes for, although it is obvious that the state wants to take and spend even more. It is worthy of note that when speaking about the growth, Putin refers to Russia during the 1990s. Why not compare indicators of the year 2018 to 2014, when the West started imposing sanctions on Russia one after another, and the Russian economy started rolling down the hill?Putin dismisses all alternative proposals for financing the Pension Fund. He did not mention the amendment on the progressive scale of taxation, although there was such a proposal made at the hearings in the State Duma on August 21. That money could be used to compensate entrepreneurs for their contributions to the Pension Fund to support people of pre-retirement age.Putin does not want to attract oil revenues to finance the Pension Fund either. According to him, this money will not be enough to pay pensions for as little as two months. Yet, oil revenues constitute a supplementary, rather than the only source of income for the Pension Fund. "What if oil prices go down?" Putin says. Indeed, the government would then need to find a way to increase tax collection from other sources.For comparison, the deficit of the Pension Fund in 2018 will amount to 257 billion rubles, while the net outflow of capital in 2017 was 31.3 billion dollars, which is about 1 trillion 966 billion rubles. The National Welfare Fund holds 4 trillion 844 billion rubles. Gazprom's profit is evaluated at 997 billion rubles. The profit of Russia's largest state-run bank, Sberbank, is 542 billion rubles. The Russian shadow economy is evaluated at 33.6 trillion rubles, or 39 percent of GDP, said business ombudsman Boris Titov.Therefore, all of the measures that Putin voiced in his speech look superficial. We have an impression that all of the "gifts" that Putin mentioned in his speech had been included in the reform in advance. Obviously, the inflation will eat up the promised addition of 1,000 rubles per year. Putin speaks about a pension of 20,000 rubles by 2024, whereas in Europe, pensions make up 40 percent of what a people get during their work service. One can only guess why Putin takes such a position. Probably, this is due to the overwhelming external pressure. If Putin had tried to explain that, people would have probably understood. Instead, they saw their president laying the burden of responsibility for the future of the country on the population. Putin does not feel guilty for the fact that Russia has not been able to amass enough money during the 2000s to finance social programs and build an independent financial system. He does not feel guilty for showing insufficient resistance to the shadow economy and corruption. Instead, he was trying to come to terms with oligarchs. An agreement with them has turned out to be more important for him than an agreement with the people.Putin's voters want a strong social state that would successfully support the foreign policy of the Kremlin from the inside. The living standard in Russia has been decreasing for the last five years, and Putin wants his electors to pedal back. Putin's rating may eventually collapse, and the president will lose control of the idea of patriotism that he has been talking about for so long. People will feel humiliated and betrayed when they realise that their president lied to them. Lyuba Lulko (Stepushova)Pravda.Ru Read article on the Russian version of Pravda.Ru

On August 29, President Vladimir Putin appeared in a televised address to the nation regarding changes in the pension legislation. His speech lasted for about 35 minutes.Putin stressed that the main objective of the pension reform is to ensure stability of the pension system for years to come.The president suggested a number of measures that would make it possible to mitigate the reform. The retirement age for women should be lowered from 63 to 60 years. Mothers of many children will have the right to early retirement."If a woman has three children, she will be able to retire three years ahead of schedule, if she has four children - four years earlier. For women who have five or more children, everything should remain as it is now - they will be able to to retire at 50," said the president.For citizens who were to retire under the old legislation in the next two years, a special privilege will be introduced - the right to receive a pension six months before the new retirement age.The state will provide additional guarantees that will protect interests of older citizens on the labor market."During the transition period, the pre-retirement age shall be the period of five years before retirement. A whole package of measures is required here. For example, one needs to establish administrative and even criminal liability for employers for dismissing workers of pre-retirement age, as well as for refusal to hire citizens for age reasons," the president said. For citizens of pre-retirement age, a special program for professional development will appear. The program will be financed from the federal budget. The amount of unemployment allowance for citizens of pre-retirement age will be increased twice:  from today's 4,900 rubles to 11,280 rubles from January 1, 2019. The payment period will be one year.For indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, the current conditions for the appointment of pensions shall be preserved unchanged. Unemployed pensioners living in the countryside will receive a 25 percent supplement to their pensions. The length of service that entitles one to early retirement will be reduced by three years: for women  - to 37 years, and for men - to 42 years. All federal benefits effective as of December 31, 2018 shall be preserved until the reform of the pension system is completed.During his speech, Putin noted that during the 2020s Russia will face a demographic crisis caused by the low birth rate that the nation experienced during the 1990s."Today, this very small generation of those born during the 1990s is entering the working age. This will increase the burden on the pension system even more, because it is built mainly on the principle of solidarity," the head of state said.According to Putin, if one shows indecision now, both the stability of the society and the security of the country will be jeopardized. "We must develop, we must overcome poverty and ensure decent life for people of the older generation - both today's and future pensioners," the president added.

Twenty-six thousand exhibits and 30 signed contracts for the supply of military equipment - this is a brief summary of Army-2018 annual military-technical arms show that was held near Moscow in Patriot Park. Representatives of more than 100 countries came to take part in the arms show this year. Russia's Defense Ministry signed a contract to purchase a large batch of new T-14 tanks and T-15 armored combat vehicles on the universal Armata platform. The Russian Armed Forces will receive 132 units of equipment before 2021. The first nine tanks are to be supplied already this year. During the forum, a number of innovative weapons were showcased together with well-known models. For example, it is 2C38 Derivation-Air Defense anti-aircraft artillery complex. The system has a 57-millimeter gun with a rate of 120 rounds per minute. Another novelty is the wheeled armored platform Boomerang, designed for the transportation of military personnel, as well as for combat missions targeting enemy infantry, armored personnel carriers and even tanks.The organizers of the forum held large-scale demonstrations to let everyone see the new weapons in action. Dozens of design bureaus and shipbuilding companies presented their developments at the forum as well: warships, submarines, weapons and radar systems. It was said that the Russian Navy would soon receive18 frigates of project 22350 and 36 corvettes of project 22380. These ships with a displacement of 4,500 tons are 135 meters long and 15 meters wide. They develop the speed of up to 29 knots, have the navigation range of up to 4,500 miles and endurance of up to 30 days.For the first time, the forum demonstrated an unmanned underwater vehicle, the tests of which are to start in November or December of this year. The underwater drone will be used to protect ports, bridges, naval bases and ships from saboteurs.The Krylov State Research Center showed the concept of a light multipurpose aircraft carrier Storm-KM with a displacement from 37 to 44 thousand tons. The ship can take on board about 50 aircraft - heavy Su-33 fighters, light MiG-29K, long-range radar patrol aircraft and multi-purpose helicopters Ka-27. The ship is powered with a 110,000 hp gas turbine. The construction of the  exhaust system makes the vessel less noticeable.It was said during the forum that Russia's fifth-generation Su-57 aircraft would be upgraded further to receive artificial intelligence. The control system and sighting equipment will be upgraded to the level of automatic combat use. The Su-57 will also be equipped with an onboard defense complex that includes new frequencies and operating modes.For the time being, Russian Air Force pilots operate ten such aircraft - fighters undergo a series of military tests in the air and on the ground. Russia also develops a new vertical take-off and landing aircraft for aircraft carriers. The implementation period of the project up to ten years. The project is included in the state armament program and comes as a continuation of the Soviet development - the Yak-38 aircraft.It is worthy of note that the contracts signed within the scope of Army 2018 forum are evaluated at over 130 billion rubles, which is three times as much as last year.

The Jerusalem Post has published an article by Iris Georlette headlined “The Sounds of Jerusalem in a tolerant Muslim state”, who hailed excellent level of organization of the Gabala Music Festival held in in the city of Gabala, Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan is going to start issuance of new generation ID cards from September 1.

International Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were at $76.14 per barrel at 0625 GMT, down 7 cents from their last close.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has ordered the building of Asan xidmət center in Shamakhi district.

The prices for precious metals have increased in Azerbaijan August 28, according to the data published by the country’s Central Bank.

The chairman of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Binali Yildirim is to visit Azerbaijan, Haberler reports.

Military units of the armed forces of Armenia violated ceasefire 94 times throughout the day.

An incident took place on Monday at Yerevan's Republic Square. Police forcefully removed several people involved in illegal street trading.

National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis spoke over the phone late Monday, a Defense Ministry source told Anadolu Agency.

Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty were evacuated Monday after an apparent construction mishap sparked a fire in propane tanks there, according to the National Parks Service, ABC News reported.

11.4% of the investment portfolio of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) is managed by foreign investors, Fineko/abc.az reports.

The United States and Mexico agreed on Monday to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), putting pressure on Canada to agree to the new terms on auto trade and other issues to remain part of the three-nation pact, Reuters reported.