With Russia in recession Putin fires 110,000 government workers

CNN/Money:

This is what belt-tightening looks like in Russia: Vladimir Putin has fired 110,000 government officials at a stroke.

The Russian president signed a decree last week limiting the number of staff employed by the Interior Ministry to just over one million. That requires massive layoffs that will bring total headcount down by 10%.

Administrative staff will bear the brunt of the cuts at the ministry, which controls the Russian police, paramilitary security forces and the road traffic safety agency.

Russia is slashing government spending by 10% across the board this year as it suffers its worsteconomic crisis in years.

The double whammy of tumbling oil prices and Western sanctions, imposed on Russia over its involvement in the crisis in Ukraine, has hit hard.

The economy shrank by 2.2% in the first quarter. The IMF expects it to contract by 3.8% this year, and by more than 1% in 2016.
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Putin also took a 10 percent pay cut, and it is probably that the money he makes on the side has also shrunk with the decline in the economy.  But the Russians still appear to be spending big on defense matters and they are poking a lot of holes in the air  sending bombers and fighters on intimidation missions against the West.