Moscow Meeting Puts Off Key Military Issues : Republics: Commonwealth leaders make little progress in dividing former Soviet armed forces.

Pressed to decide the future of the former Soviet armed forces before 5,000 disgruntled officers meet in the Kremlin today, leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States struggled Thursday night to hammer out a unified military policy but to little avail.

Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin, who chaired the meeting at an estate in southwestern Moscow, announced at its conclusion: “Today, we agreed calmly, with mutual understanding, on all the issues we intended to resolve.” But he acknowledged that the 11 member states of the Commonwealth postponed deciding key substantive questions on the military until early next month.

Yeltsin’s spokesman said the Commonwealth leaders agreed on oaths of allegiance for the former Soviet armed forces that will remain unified and formed commissions on splitting up the Black Sea and Caspian Sea fleets. But otherwise, they appeared to make little progress on the critical issue of how the 3.7-million-member military will be divided and financed now that the country it served no longer exists.

A similar gathering in Minsk on Dec. 30 yielded general agreement to keep strategic forces united, while acknowledging every state’s right to form its own conventional army. But cracks appeared in the agreement almost immediately when Ukraine moved to take virtually all Soviet troops on its territory under its own aegis and claimed control of the Black Sea Fleet.

This time, the Commonwealth leaders were laboring under the additional pressure of today’s “All-Army Officers’ Meeting.” An annual affair, it is expected this year to turn into a political vehicle for the accumulated anger of an officer corps that has seen its country and flag abolished, its budget slashed and its body of men all but parceled out to fledgling new nations.

Russian media predicted that the officers would demand that the military remain united, despite the Minsk accord, or, at the very least, that it be granted a long transition period so that it can split gradually.

Seven of the 11 Commonwealth states confirmed Thursday that they want to keep the entire military united. But Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Moldova have declared they must have their own national armies. “The army no longer wants to be the hostage of political leaders,” the Tass news agency commented.

Despite the legitimacy of many of the officers’ demands, including their insistence that their future careers, pensions and housing be assured despite the current turmoil, Russian analysts said they are apprehensive that the meeting could spawn dangerous new political forces.

The officers could form their own party, they said, and become a powerful force for conservatism, or push to the forefront a new military strongman. “The greatest danger of the All-Army Officers Meeting,” warned the daily Moskovsky Komsomolets, “is that it could bring forward from its ranks a leader of the Red or nationalist persuasion” along the lines of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi or Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Air Marshal Yevgeny I. Shaposhnikov, the acting commander in chief of the former Soviet armed forces, may be unable to control the meeting, the newspaper said.

One likely topic for discussion is Russian Deputy Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis’ announcement Thursday that the government has worked out a defense budget for 1992 that would cut military spending by 30% and use the money for converting defense factories to civilian production.

The officers’ meeting, which had not announced an official agenda, is also expected to discuss the three Baltic countries’ demands for an accelerated withdrawal of the former Soviet troops there and Ukraine’s intent to liquidate the nuclear weapons on its territory faster than specified by U.S.-Soviet treaty.

The noticeable rifts already developing in the Commonwealth over military and other issues were evident at Thursday night’s meeting as well, with Ukrainian President Leonid M. Kravchuk--the most independent-minded and anti-Russian among the leaders in the group--arriving extremely late and three other presidents reportedly kept away by illness and a flood emergency.

Despite conciliatory talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Kiev this Saturday, Kravchuk has continued to speak out angrily against what he brands Russian imperialism.

Apparently concerned by the disputes that arose immediately after the Minsk agreement, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed at the Commonwealth meeting that the group discuss what happens when a member violates a signed agreement.