Regarding the issue of public transport use by people entitled to benefits, this problem could be resolved by providing beneficiaries with transport tickets for a sum not exceeding the payments they are entitled to receive, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the government. This would be the simplest and most clear solution. People entitled to benefits could then choose whether to buy a monthly transport ticket for all types of city public transport or whether to keep the money instead, if they do not use public transport very frequently.
In the Soviet Union only a relatively small share of the overall population was entitled to benefits. As social and economic problems grew worse following the collapse of the Soviet Union so did the number of people entitled to benefits increase considerably. By declaring the existence of benefits that it in fact either did not provide or provided only partially, the state was covering up its economic and social failures.
The government should be ready today for criticism from parties on both the left and the right as it was these forces that created the system of oligarchic capitalism in Russia and allowed the country’s national wealth to be pillaged while at the same time encouraging or taking decisions that were popular but absolutely impossible to fulfil.