The price of delay: the future of Russian and Ukrainian pension systems

The end of “demographic dividends” as well as the beginning of the current economic and financial crisis again placed Russia and Ukraine’s pension reform problems high on the public agenda. Up until now, countries hesitated to substantially reform their pension systems due to difficulties of social and economic transition. Today they, as all other developed and transition countries, are faced with rapidly ageing populations, which makes old pension systems unsustainable in the long‐run and leaves governments with no other choice but urgent reform.