No less figure than.....

Hello. I was reading an article about the war in Afghanistan, and came across with this expression "no less figure than....", and having a trouble figuring out how the expression should be interpreted. The expression was used in the following manner: Pacifying a country so large and unruly will require hundreds of thousands of troops that the U.S. doesn't have. And so no less figure than General David Petraeus has endorsed a wholly different solution. Is the expression the same as "none other than?" or is it slightly, or even completely, different from it?

Thanks a lot in advance.