KHANKALA. July 2 (Interfax-AVN) - Establishment of territorial police stations in all Chechen localities and a series of other measures will make it possible to withdraw the unified federal troops group from Chechnya before the end of the year, commander of the group Colonel General Vladimir Moltenskoi said on Tuesday.
"The group's reduction has been in progress for a long time, and the withdrawal of troops from the Chechen territory may be completed by the end of the year," Moltenskoi told Interfax- Military News Agency.
After the group is pulled out, the Defense Ministry grouping in Chechnya will number 22,000 people. The figure will include 14,000 servicemen manning the 42nd motorized rifle division and 8,000 people serving in military commandant's offices.
"The unified federal troops group that includes units of the Defense, Interior, Justice and Emergencies Ministries, as well as those of the Federal Border Guard Service, Federal Security Service and other agencies, currently totals about 80,000 people," the general said.
"More than 2,000 policemen have returned home from service trips to Chechnya, units of the Interior Ministry troops and battalion-size task forces of the Defense Ministry are being withdrawn from several districts," he went on. Meanwhile, newly- established police formations have started to guard heads of local administrations and maintain the general security regime in localities on their own.
"The process of their establishment continues, we still have to establish such formations in 100 out of 400 Chechen localities," Moltenskoi said.
"Control over the anti-terrorist operation in Chechnya will be transferred from the Federal Security Service to a different agency in the end of the year," the commander stressed. The control will be gained by the Interior Ministry or the Chechen military commandant's office, he noted.
According to Moltenskoi, reduction of the federal troops will not affect the situation in Chechnya. "No more than 1,000 people pose resistance here, and most of them are battered and scattered groups numbering three to five people," he said.