"Too long, it is taking too long," said the Russian leader, who has never been one to hold back in criticising top officials in public.Gen Sergei Surovikin was appointed in October after a series of setbacks in Russia's invasion of Ukraine but he has failed to reverse the course of the war.He was handed the task of overseeing Russia's weapons industry last summer when shortcomings had already been exposed on the battlefield.The televised dressing-down echoed an even more dramatic event three days before the war broke out, when Mr Putin ordered his top security figures to say whether Russia should recognise two occupied areas of eastern Ukraine as independent.When one of his closest allies, foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin, hesitantly suggested Russia's Western partners should be given one last chance, President Putin began to interrogate him."