A court deemed an expert’s opinion about raising the retirement age in Russia “unreliable information”

A court deemed an expert’s opinion about raising the retirement age in Russia “unreliable information”

A magistrate judge in Moscow fined the outlet Abzats and its editor-in-chief Mikhail Shakhnazarov a total of 315,000 rubles for publishing an expert’s forecast about a possible increase in the retirement age in Russia. Verstka drew attention to the rulings.

The protocols were drawn up over a note published on the outlet’s website on July 15. In it, economist Alexander Razuvaev expressed the opinion that the retirement age in the future could be raised by another five years for both men and women:

“Demographics suggest that in the future it will be problematic for the state to pay pensions. In the Soviet Union, there were eight workers for every pensioner; now there are two. Given the demographic situation, everything will only get worse. The retirement age will be raised, justified by increased life expectancy. I think another five years could easily be added for both men and women,” the outlet quoted Razuvaev as saying.

This material has already been removed from the website, but it has been preserved in the Internet Archive.

Roskomnadzor considered that the publication contained a “knowingly unreliable character” because it was “based on an expert’s comment, not on official statements by persons authorized to make them.”

“The information in this publication is expressed in the form of an assertion about a fact and an event. The dissemination of said information could have misled citizens, which could have influenced public consciousness and led to a mass violation of public order and/or public safety,” the ruling says.

The court stated that the editor-in-chief was obliged to verify the information being published, but did not do so. Shakhnazarov was fined 65,000 rubles under Part 9 of Article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, concerning abuse of freedom of mass information. The outlet itself was fined under the same article, for 250,000 rubles.

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