Russia is to cut over one lakh government posts during the next three years. At a meeting attended by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin today said cutting the officials by 20 percent would save the federal budget some 37 billion rubles annually. Earlier, Medvedev ordered the government to give out a forecast for the next three to five years, calculating the actual number of servants the state really needed.Medvedev stressed that cutting the federal government's headcount should not be mechanical but be based on financial capabilities of the state, as well as internationally recommended ratio for public servants among the work force. Medvedev said that the optimal ratio should be facilitated by introducing electronic government and outsourcing state functions where possible.