8 thousand Chechen retirees unable to receive proper pensions

Nearly 8,000 retirees in Chechnya are unable to receive retirement benefits for which they are eligible, announced Bogdan Istamulov, deputy director of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation for Chechnya.

According to him, this has been caused by the absence of necessary documentation needed for pension assessment. "Employment files that documented where pensioners formerly worked and salaries earned were destroyed during "anti-terrorist operations". They are essential for determining average earnings since they are the only basis for evaluating the amount of support that retirees should receive," Mr Istamulov explained.

For this reason many are getting only minimum payments. "We agree this is not fair, but that's the law and we must proceed according to it," he says. "We've already approached the Russian [central] Pension Fund asking them to take into account the specific situation in Chechnya and to reassess the minimum level at least."

According to data of the Chechen Pension Fund, there are more than 200,000 pensioners in Chechnya today; 8,000 of them receive only the minimum of a bit more than 600 rubles monthly, the equivalent of about $21.