Russia to Double Officials' Salaries

By The Moscow Times

July 31, 2014

Russia will on average double the salaries of its federal public servants by 2018, according to a document outlining the country's budget policy drafted by the Finance Ministry, the RBC news agency reported Thursday.

The increase will come in the form of incentive schemes or bonuses, the report said.

The government will spend 462 billion rubles ($13 billion) on the increase over the next three years, the report said. The average salary is thus set to increase by at least 58,000 ($1,600) per month from today's level of about 75,000 rubles per month, according to RBC. Top government officials will see their salaries increase by 152,000. The more senior the public servant, the bigger the bonus will be.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's spokesperson Natalya Timakova denied the report, saying that the government has no plans to increase officials' salaries, RBC reported.

As president, Vladimir Putin earns 715,000 rubles ($20,000) per month, while Medvedev gets 570,000 rubles, the report said. There are 39,200 federal public servants in Russia, RBC reported, citing the state statistics service.

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