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Moscow Times
January 25, 2005
Small-Town Seniors Turn On Putin
By Francesca Mereu
Staff Writer

SERGIYEV POSAD, Moscow Region -- Due to their heart conditions, Boris Andreyev, 82, and his wife, Galina, 80, have to travel across town three times per week to get treatment in local hospitals.

As for millions of pensioners across the country, life for the Andreyevs became more difficult on New Year's Day, when they lost their entitlement to a range of Soviet-era benefits.

And although pensioners in this town 60 kilometers north of Moscow have now been promised free travel passes, this hasn't helped them much as local public bus services were also slashed this month.

Now the Andreyevs each have to spend an average of 150 rubles ($5) per week catching two or three private marshrutka buses, which cost 10 rubles (30 cents) per journey, to their hospital appointments.

Out of monthly pensions of 2,500 rubles, the 600 extra rubles each is a big chunk.

"This is how pensioners live in Putin's Russia," Andreyeva said, her eyes full of tears. "At my age, I have to go into the streets, with this cold, to fight for my rights."

The Andreyevs, former factory workers, were among about 150 pensioners who gathered in front of the town mayor's office on a freezing Monday morning to protest against the monetization of benefits.

Many protesters called for President Vladimir Putin and the government to resign, and when an organizer asked for a show of hands in favor of Putin's ouster, it passed with a comfortable majority.

"This is the government's mistake, but also Putin's fault. Why he is hiding in the Kremlin? He should come to talk to the people," Andreyeva said, throwing up her hands.

Pensioners at the rally, which was organized by the local Communist Party, said that the town's administration gave them passes to use on public transportation, but from the beginning of the year the buses changed their timetable, and now come only a few times a day.

"Everything is done on purpose. Buses are not coming so we have to pay for private transportation, which costs 10 rubles per ride," Andreyev said.

Now most of the Andreyevs' benefits are gone, replaced by a single cash payment of 225 rubles per month -- not enough to cover their hospital trips, let alone medicines and household utility bills.

"I have heart problems and the pills I need are not free. They cost 50 rubles," Andreyeva said.

Before the law came into effect, their pensions were just enough to buy "cheap food to eat," Andreyeva said. Now they can't see a way to make ends meet.

"I haven't bought myself undergarments for 15 years," Andreyeva said. "Everything I wear is worn out. Our one-room apartment badly needs repairs. From now on, things will only get worse."

That point will come at the end of this month, the pensioners said, when they will have to pay utility bills in full.

"Now we get 50 percent off our monthly bill of 417 rubles -- we just can't afford to pay more. This is why we decided to come today," Andreyeva said.

The Andreyevs, like many other pensioners at the rally, said that they had voted for Putin and for United Russia, a mistake they would not make again.

"We trusted them. We voted for them because we thought things would get better, like in the Soviet times. I got swindled. Next time I'll vote against all," Andreyev said.

One protester, Zoya Ivanova, 73, said that after 44 years of working in a factory, she now receives a pension of 2,000 rubles. This month, she received 200 rubles in place of her benefits -- a sum she wants to send back to the president.

Ivanova, a small woman in a shabby fur coat, said she's tired of counting "every single kopek" and picking up only the cheapest food from the shops. Next time, she said, she'll vote for the Communists, not for United Russia or Putin.

"At least under the Communists I wasn't hungry," she said.