The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria says Russia's decision to withdraw forces from the war-torn country could help with the outcome of peace talks in Switzerland.
Staffan de Mistura calls the move "significant" and says he hopes it will help move indirect talks between the Syrian government and the main opposition bloc.
The first group of Russian pilots to withdraw from Syria has arrived home, where they received a heroes' welcome.
Meanwhile, in Geneva, United Nations' Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura says he hopes the departure of Russian forces from Syria will help the peace talks taking place there.
"We consider this a significant, I repeat a significant, development. And now we hope that we will be seeing this decision bringing some positive influence on the actual progress of the talks."
Opponents of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad are hoping Vladimir Putin's surprise decision to remove most Russian forces from Syria signals a shift in his support.
But the full significance of the move is not yet clear.
Russia is keeping an air base and an undeclared number of forces in Syria.
Its jets are still in action against the self-proclaimed Islamic State, which it has always maintained was its target even as strikes often hit other opposition areas.
Despite the questions, United States Secretary of State John Kerry says he, too, believes a new and very important phase in diplomatic efforts to end the civil war has begun.
"I will be travelling next week to Moscow to meet with President Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in order to discuss how we can effectively move the political process forward and try to take advantage of this moment."
The Syrian opposition High Negotiations Committee has used its first meeting at peace talks in Geneva to call for progress on freeing detainees.
One of its negotiators, Bassma Kodmani, says efforts so far have yielded no results.
"It is an obligation for the regime to implement it. It is not up for negotiations, given that we estimate that there are daily executions of detainees, of some 50 detainees, every day in the different prisons of Syria."
Staffan de Mistura, with the United Nations, says he is cautiously optimistic, suggesting there is new momentum to end the now five-year-long war.
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