Russian military prepares for massive redundancies

The Head of Russia's Economic Development Department, Sergey Averin, has warned regional authorities to expect massive dismissals of military personnel during 2010.

"I have no figures on how many troops will be released," he said in comments reported on 5 January. "We will meet with the Defence Ministry later in January; then we will be told the full details."

The plans accelerate existing reforms both to reduce costs and to create rapidly deployable, professional non-conscript armed forces.

The Russian armed forces are to be scaled down to one million personnel by 2012, with officer posts cut to 150,000 and army generals to 900.