Putin orders government staff cuts

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has signed a decree reducing the
number of employees of the government from the 31st of March by 5%, by
another 5% in 2012 and by 10% in 2013, said the spokesman of the
premier, Dmitry Peskov, RIA Novosti reports

He noted that the order is signed in order to fulfill the president's
decree on the optimization of the number of federal civil servants and
employees of federal government agencies.

He noted that the average age of employees of the government staff is 45.