MOSCOW — With an aircraft carrier deployed off Syria’s shores and hundreds of new jets, missiles and tanks entering service each year, President Vladimir Putin can project Russian military power on a scale unseen since Soviet times.

A massive reform effort launched in the wake of Russia’s 2008 war with Georgia has transformed a crumbling, demoralized military into agile forces capable of swift action in Ukraine and Syria. Long gone are the days when Russia was forced through financial hardship to scrap dozens of warships and ground most of its air force. Whereas many young men long dodged their obligatory military service, recruits today speak of extending assignments in a better equipped, trained and paid army.

“The military reform has given Russia, the Kremlin (and) Mr. Putin a usable instrument of foreign policy which Russia did not have for a quarter century,” said Dmitry Trenin , director of the Carnegie Moscow Center think tank.

This dawning reality casts a shadow from Moscow to Washington and beyond. The key question: Will an emboldened Putin keep deploying his forces in bitterly disputed unilateral actions, or could the U.S. election of Donald Trump mean a potential thaw in relations and new era of cooperation? Trump’s nominee for national security adviser, retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn , has said he sees Russia as a possible military partner in Syria and elsewhere.

Putin’s military power today stands in stark contrast to the dying days of the Soviet Union, when Russia inherited the bulk of the 4-million-strong Soviet army, conscript-heavy forces it could barely afford to feed.

Russia rapidly reduced those ranks to just over 1 million and then found itself struggling through much of the 1990s to defeat rebels in the breakaway republic of Chechnya. Russia’s military has 1 million soldiers today.

During its five-day war with tiny Georgia, army units starved of new equipment for 15 years experienced chronic vehicle breakdowns, communications failures and friendly-fire casualties from inaccurate salvos. Incensed by those setbacks, Putin and military commanders committed to a program of radical restructuring and spending.