The President opened the meeting, saying he had signed amendments to the law on state pensions and a decree raising the average value of pensions.
He said the changes made to Article 7 of the law referred to such categories of people as war-disabled veterans and veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the parents of servicemen killed in trouble spots and elsewhere, and also survivors of the Leningrad blockade.
The decree, Mr Putin said, concerned 18 million Russian pensioners who had their average pensions raised to 1,013 roubles from May 1.
The President instructed the Government to streamline a mechanism for investing Pension Fund reserves in 2001 and charged the Government and the Pension Fund with financing the programme for raising pensions until 2005.