Vladimir Putin, speaking at his annual televised question-and-answer session, said: "There are too many of them. We need to restrict their number, because when it comes to composing the national team, we do not have enough players."
Russian national soccer has achieved little success in recent years, in spite of reforms. The national team performed poorly at Euro-2004 in Portugal, and failed to qualify for this summer's World Cup in Germany.
Earlier the President of the Russian Football Union, Vitaly Mutko, said that the clubs in the Russian Premier League would not be allowed more than five foreign players by 2010, compared to the current limit of eight per club.
Mutko also said that as of next year, clubs will have to pay $30,000 to the union for each foreign player.
In an effort to turn the fortunes of Russian soccer, the RFU signed earlier this year a two-year 4-million euro contract with Dutch coach Guus Hiddink.
The new coach, who previously guided South Korea and Australia to unprecedented success, has said that his main task in Russia is to take the team to the Euro-2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland.
However, Russia's success has so far been muted. The team has already played three qualifiers for Euro-2008, finishing two with a draw and winning one.
Putin said that the new coach was not at fault, but cited problems with the organizational system of Russian soccer.
"The coach, who is working under a contract in Russia is a strong specialist," the president said. "He has already proved this by his work in various countries."
Soccer is not the only sport in Russia that has a large number of foreign players. Vyacheslav Fetisov, the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Physical Culture and Sport, highlighted the problem in December last year, saying that foreign nationals playing for Russian teams take $250 million in salary and compensation out of the country annually.
He said the excessive number of foreigners in Russian teams is hindering the development of sports in the country, and that the issue should be primarily addressed to regions and teams that pay large sums to foreign players, rather than financing their sports infrastructures.
