RUSSIA - July 1 - Plan To Pay Cash Benefits Brings Protests.

Hundreds of people demonstrate against plans to turn benefits, from free transport passes to help on medical treatment, into cash for two-thirds of the country's citizens. The demonstrators fear the cash equivalent will not match the value of their benefits, which are received by an estimated 100m Russians and worth about Rbs170bn (4.8bn, [pounds sterling]5.8bn). The Russian government wants to introduce the changes to improve the efficiency of the social security system. Many economists and poverty specialists say the concessions - a legacy of the Soviet era - are not distributed fairly as they are not based on income or need. This weakens the struggle against poverty and conceals the true costs of transport and other public services. Pensioners' Party's Vladimir Butkeyev says: "We are categorically against these changes. I understand the need for a balanced budget, but there are other ways to achieve it that do not cut the government's social obligations". The new law marks one of the most important social reforms undertaken so far by Pres Putin, who pledged the "monetisation" of benefits ahead of his re-election in March. It is set to be one of his most contested initiatives, removing bus and train passes and other benefits from such respected groups as Heroes of Socialist labour, Labour Veterans, Survivors of the Siege of Leningrad and Victims of political repression, as well as invalids and Chernobyl victims. The policies will also prove a test case for new legislation to restrict public demonstrations and referenda, seen by some as pre-emptive moves by the authorities to minimise protests triggered by unpopular social reforms. Sergei Surkov, of the Independent Institute for Social Policy, said that in 2001 official figures suggested more than one-third of the cash value of benefits went to the richest 10% of households and just 3% to the poorest 10%. Putin has argued many recipients of such concessions lived in rural areas without access to communal transport and would benefit by receiving cash instead and choosing how it should be spent.