About

‘Elderly Care and Pension Reforms in Russia’ is a project by Peter Taggart, an MA Russian Studies student at the Aleksanteri Institute, conducted under the supervision of INEQ Director Meri Kulmala.

About the Author

The idea for this blog and interview series came from my thesis research. My study used regional news and Vkontakte data to explore the extent to which nostalgia for the Soviet era of social provision was a motivating factor for Russians to protest against raising the retirement age in 2018.

During the data analysis I uncovered some illuminating discussions surrounding pension reform. These included factors such as, but not limited to, impacts on incomes of Russians living outside major cities, ‘knock-on’ effects facing other generations, and angst that some professions or classes were shielded from the retirement age hike. These discussions highlighted just how interconnected pension reform policy was with other social and economic policy spheres. This blog and interview series provides a platform to explore these and other aspects of pension and elderly care reforms outside of my final thesis report.

My studies and thesis research have been funded by a Leverhulme Trust Study Abroad Studentship (grant number SAS-2019-057).