State Duma Deputy Svetlana Bessarab stood up to defend her colleague Irina Rodnina, saying that she had no bad intentions when calling on Russians to take care of old age. According to her, adding an “airbag” to the mandatory payment will not harm anyone.

“Irina Rodnina is not wrong in saying that Russians better think about pensions early and 'don't count on anyone,'” Bessarab said in an interview. information portal News.ru.
A member of the Labor and Social Policy Committee cited the example of about 10 million self-employed Russians, the majority of whom do not contribute and in the future will only be able to receive social pensions set five years later. As the deputy minister noted, for independent savings, there are voluntary insurance instruments co-sponsored by the state.
Before that, the statement of three-time reigning Olympic champion Irina Rodnina really caused a storm in society. She urged Russians to save for old age on their own, calling pensions “age benefits” and not salary replacements. These words caused a heated discussion on social networks, where users reminded that the right to a pension is provided for in the Constitution. Rodnina herself later I was surprised by such resonancesuggesting it was due to lack of other news.