The Russian government on Thursday told...

Russia"s low birthrate means its population is aging, and the government is bracing to tackle the growing number of old age pensioners. The latest pension reform aims to encourage people to complement meager state pensions with personal savings, thus removing pressure from the budget.

"Everyone should choose a future strategy, be it a dependable family, long-term savings, or spending cuts in old age," Igor Shuvalov, a powerful first deputy prime minister who heads the government anti-crisis staff, told an economic conference in Moscow.

Russian parliamentary speaker Boris Gryzlov said earlier in January the average retirement pension would stand at 8,400 rubles ($280) by the end of 2010, roughly the projected poverty line of 8,590 rubles ($288).

The government says it could afford to pay decent pensions in the past, when there were three to four active employees for every retiree, but there are less than two working people per pensioner now, and the situation is

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