Russian forces in Mariupol have started paying pensions in Russian rubles using cash, an aide to the city’s Ukrainian mayor Petro Andrushchenko said on Thursday.
“It is now known that the occupants have already delivered trucks with cash,” he said on national television. “Russian pensions are being handed out to pensioners in Russian rubles – which shows very well what the Russian economy is, that such an amount of money can stupidly be brought in cash and start distributing.”
“But you understand what is happening there: huge lines, fights, scandals, because of the heat, because there is no organization at all. That is, no process is organized,” she said.
Andrushchenko is not in town, but he has been a reliable conduit for information from Mariupol.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that around 46,000 requests for pension payments had been received and that the self-declared People’s Republic of Donetsk had started paying out these benefits.
Andrushchenko added that these numbers could be “more or less” reliable.
“But we must add another 20 to 30 percent of our Mariupol elders who do not accept the occupation and deliberately did not present documents, and another 5 percent who were unable to physically attend and present documents. This is a critical value for the city in which it is located,” he said.
Source: CNN Brasil
