MOSCOW. Dec 30 (Interfax-AVN) - The curtailment of the Russian army group in Syria will be justified only if the conditions of ceasefire on the territory of the republic are observed, but it is very difficult to receive such guarantees today, Gen. of the Army Yury Baluyevsky, who served as the chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff in 2004-2008, said.
"From the point of view of logic, everything is correct. But all the matter is whether the primary condition will be observed. And the primary condition is a ceasefire," Baluyevsky told Interfax-AVN on Thursday, commenting on Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's statement that the Russian army group in Syria can be reduced.
"It is difficult to comment what they have been guided by, having taken this decision," Baluyevsky said.
The main point here is guarantees of the ceasefire agreements, he said.
"On the one side, a really good multi-move combination is seen. Aleppo has been liberated. Now the most important thing is to cease fire. The following steps are to sit [at the negotiating table] at the neutral venue in Astana and agree on the political setup in Syria. From the point of view of the diplomatic science, everything is correct. But there is a question how everything will be observed, what will they agree upon? First and foremost, starting from the issue of ceasefire," the general said.
"This is the main question," he said.
The development of events in Syria and, in particular, regular daily shelling on the Syrian provinces by the militants, including on the Russian embassy in Damascus, demonstrates that there is no easy settlement of the problem in this issue, Baluyevsky said.
Besides, he was skeptical about the outcomes of the operation for the removal of militants from Aleppo, because this allowed the leadership of illegal armed units to take a respite, regroup and prepare for new hostilities.
"Those who have been taken away from Aleppo, where have they been delivered? In Idlib, other places. To put it mildly, they washed up, changed clothes, prepared, combed up and went fighting again," Baluyevsky said.
"The ceasefire, the truce in general, preservation of Syria as a country and President of the republic Bashar al-Assad in his current position is profitable to far from all," he also said.
Shoigu reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier on Thursday that "the conditions were created for the reduction of the Russian army group in Syria."