The German military attache in Moscow described the Russian military response in Georgia as "appropriate" in an internal document, according to a report in the Sunday edition of the German newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). ( dpa )
"The extent of the use of military force by the Russian side appears - seen from here and despite reports to the contrary from Georgia and the picture conveyed by the media - not inappropriately high," Brigadier General Heinz G Wagner wrote on August 11.
According to the report, the general said some three days after the outbreak of hostilities that Russia had no choice but to react to the Georgian military action in South Ossetia.
The Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in the breakaway Georgian region "were not in a position, given their weapons and equipment, to defend themselves effectively or even to resist," the general wrote.
Russia had been compelled to ensure that the land forces of its 58th Army were able to move without being threatened by the Georgian Air Force, and for this reason Georgian planes had been prevented from intervening, Wagner wrote.
The Russians had moved to strengthen their peacekeepers, deployed under a mandate from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to protect Russian citizens and to restore the status quo ante, the attache said.
"The deployment of air power - despite the regrettable civilian casualties - can be seen as militarily appropriate to the operation," Wagner wrote, according to the FAZ report.