Russia to cut army to one million by 2013

Russia plans to cut its army to 1 million people by 2013, Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Monday. "We propose to have an army of 1 million within four or five years, that is by 2013," Russian media quoted Serdyukov as telling reporters after meeting President Dmitry Medvedev.
Russian officials had earlier put the number of Russian army servicemen at 1.13 million at the end of 2007. Serdyukov said the Defence Ministry had earlier planned to reduce the army to 1 million servicemen by 2016. He said the army would shrink to 1.1 million by 2011.