#5 - RW 276
RUSSIA'S ARMY TO BE AXED TO ONE MILLION BY 2005

MOSCOW, OCTOBER 2 (RIA NOVOSTI) - By 2005 the strength of the Russian army will number 1 million. The figure is cited in the White Book on the development of the Russian armed forces, to be presented at the Thursday conference in the Foreign Ministry by its head Sergei Ivanov.

"Strength reduction of the Russian army happens in several stages: first, it was cut from 2.75 to 1.6 million in 1992 to 1996; now the second stage is being completed and, at August 1, 2003, it stood at 1.16 million; by 2005 it will be about 1 million," the document reads.

"Major reductions of the Armed Forces are not intended later on: the strength has reached the level of defence sufficiency," the White Book goes on to read.

The number of generals is 0.1 percent of the total strength of the army. Thus, the Defence Ministry refutes the wide-spread opinion that there are tens of thousands of generals in the Russian army: "In the Russian army today the ratio between the number of posts held by higher officers to the total army strength is 0.1 percent. It is less than in the Soviet army, the tsarist army and the majority of contemporary armies in the world," the White Book says.

"Moreover, this number is the lowest in comparison with the similar indicators of other departments envisaging military service /the Emergencies Ministry, 0.44 percent; the Federal Security Service (FSB), including the Federal Frontier Service (FPS), 0.13 percent", reads the White Book.