Military cutbacks

Army - 180,000 Navy - 50,000 Air force - 40,000 Auxiliary forces - 80,000

The measures are being seen as recognition by the government that the country can no longer afford the huge armed forces it boasted during the Soviet era.

The current defence budget is just $5.1bn compared with the United States annual military spending of $300bn.

Obsolete

Although the army remains one of the world's largest, underfunding has left troops underfed, ill-equipped, and lumbered with obsolete weaponry.

The war in Chechnya has exposed the military shortcomings

The recent sinking of the Kursk submarine underlined military decline when it was revealed that the Russian navy could no longer afford to train diving teams who might have been able to attempt a rescue.

The ongoing war in Chechnya, has also highlighted the shortcomings of the underfunded army, against which lightly-armed Chechen rebels regularly inflict significant losses.

Following the Kursk tragedy, President Putin said Russia should trim its armed forces into a "compact" and modern fighting force.

Mr Putin has made military reform one of his top priorities, and one of his first actions as president was to approve modernisation plans for conventional weapons, and boost military spending.

The restructuring also ends months of uncertainty over the future of the Strategic Rocket Forces, which currently operates under its own command system.

New definition

Under a new system, control of Russia's ballistic missiles will be amalgamated with the General staff chain of command.

Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev opposed missile force cutbacks

The status of the rocket forces has been a contentious issue in Russia for months, with a public row ensuing between Defence Minister Sergeyev and the Head of Russia's general staff, General Anatoly Kvashnin, over their future.

Analysts say that, while troop reduction is a step in the right direction, it alone will not solve Russia's problems, unless the military is reorganised, and has a new post cold war definition of its strategic aims.

Russia has already cut its armed forces from five million to 1.2 million troops during the past decade under a reform programmed launched by former President Boris Yeltsin.