The current economic crisis in Russia has forced President Vladimir Putin to fire 110,000 government officials, bringing down those working in the Interior Ministry by 10 percent.
Putin signed a decree last week limiting the number of staff employed by the Interior Ministry to just over one million, a move that requires massive layoffs. As a result, 110,000 government officials lost their jobs.
The majority of the cuts will hit the administrative staff. The ministry controls the Russian police, paramilitary security forces and the road traffic safety agency, according to CNN.
The job losses are a result of the worse economic crisis in years, which was caused by tumbling oil prices and sanctions over its battle with Ukraine, according to Economic Collapse News. The Russian economy shrank by 2.2 percent in Q1, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that it will shrink by 3.8 percent over the course of 2015 before a further contraction of just over 1 percent in 2016.
Th cuts are also affecting Putin, who took a pay cut of 10 percent in March, shortly after ordering every other government department, with the exception of the of defense, to reduce their spending, according to ValueWalk.
Official figures show unemployment rose to 5.4 percent in June, compared to 4.8 percent last year.
