MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin attacked one of Russia's most intractable problems Friday with a pledge to carry out a reform of the military that may decide the future shape of the country's nuclear weapons.
The painful issue of restructuring the military sparked a bitter public row among Russia's top brass last month. But Putin told the powerful Security Council in a four-hour meeting Friday that it was time to end the argument.
Despite repeated promises after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Putin's predecessor, Boris N. Yeltsin, was unable to carry out military reforms. Putin's move in his first year in office illustrates his willingness to struggle with some of the toughest structural problems facing Russia. It follows his action to curb the powers of regional governors and to introduce a 13% flat tax designed to end endemic tax evasion.
Critics say Russia's nuclear forces are too costly and an inappropriate response to the new challenges on the country's southern flank. Proponents led by Defense Minister Igor D. Sergeyev cite the need to maintain a nuclear deterrent. While both sides expressed satisfaction after Friday's meeting, there were hints that Putin was leaning toward the critics.
He warned against the "unrestrained accumulation of piles of weapons," saying that was one reason the Soviet Union collapsed.
Putin, who built his popularity on a close identification with the military, usually showers lavish praise on the armed services, but his words Friday were not so kind.
"The current structure of the armed forces is hardly optimal. How can it be considered optimal if training is not conducted in many units, pilots almost never fly and sailors almost never put to sea?" he said at the meeting, which he had called to work out an approach to military restructuring.
Putin's tough approach to the war in the separatist republic of Chechnya became his political trademark, but the costly campaign has dragged on, exposing the weaknesses of Russia's conventional forces and exacerbating the government's difficulties financing the military.
The war vacuumed up 85% of the army's supply stockpiles, with no funds left to replenish them, Sergeyev said recently.
Putin slammed years of irresponsible military spending, which he blamed for the failure of military reform in the past decade.
