The new PFR head, Maxim Topilin, was introduced to the collective at the Russian Pension Fund today.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova introduced Maxim Topilin and noted that his appointment signified the change of leader and paradigm of the Pension Fund activity. “As you know, rather serious tasks have been set for the social sector, whose integral element the Pension Fund is. It is not just a government agent in the field of assignment and payment of pensions and social benefits,” the deputy prime minister said.
She thanked Anton Drozdov for his service as the PFR head. “Allow me to say that Anton Viktorovich Drozdov had been in charge of the Pension Fund for years, including the most challenging periods, and took rather serious steps towards the Pension Fund’s development,” Golikova said.
Labor and Social Protection Minister Anton Kotyakov, who participated in the introduction ceremony, congratulated Maxim Topilin and Anton Drozdov on their new appointments and set guidelines for further joint work of the ministry and the fund. “The Pension Fund and its expanded network actually represent the government before all strata of the population, before citizens,” the minister. “Apart from upgrading the technological component, we are tasked with continuing the development of client-oriented services and simplifying our communication and interaction with citizens as much as possible,” the minister said.
Maxim Topilin thanked PFR employees and said they had been working together for years. “We were working together when I was the minister, for almost eight years, and a variety of issues were addressed directly with Anton Viktorovich and his colleagues over this eight-year period. First of all, we were addressing changes in the pension system and tasks set for us by the government. Our work was done practically on the daily basis,” Topilin said.
The new PFR Board chairman reminded the collective of key tasks set for the Pension Fund in the near future. Above all, Maxim Topilin mentioned laws to be elaborated on the basis of the presidential address to the Federal Assembly. “A federal law has been drafted to amend the maternity (family) capital law,” the chairman said. “Therefore, we are preparing our offices for this activity and the payment of maternity capital for the first and second child,” he said.
Topilin also mentioned the bill on benefits to WWII veterans. “It is planned to enlarge allocations for benefits paid to our most esteemed citizens, WWII and Home Front veterans. An additional sum of almost 60 billion rubles will be assigned,” Topilin said.
In conclusion, the audience was addressed by Anton Drozdov, who thanked everyone present and said that over the past decade the Pension Fund evolved into a more efficient organization with a modernized structure. In his words, the PFR information system was remodeled, and SNILS became the unified identifier in social affairs. “Something changed every year, and the fund was tasked with implementing those innovations shortly and without failures. We managed to do that,” Drozdov said.
He especially thanked Tatiana Golikova and Maxim Topilin, who were overseeing the PFR activity, and expressed his cordial gratitude to all fund workers. “I’d like to thank the collective, all of you, deputies, heads of our divisions, heads of territorial branches, and every employee of the Pension Fund for helping me, and working together with me. We would have achieved nothing without you,” Drozdov said.
