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Miami Herald
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Russia Setting Up to ‘Test' NATO in Baltics: German Intelligence
Russia wants to test the NATO alliance and extend its confrontation with the West beyond Ukraine, according to Germany's foreign intelligence chief. The warning by Bruno Kahl comes as NATO chief Mark Rutte said that Russia's military industrial complex was producing arms at a rate quick enough to allow Moscow ready to attack the alliance within five years. Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment. NATO leaders have repeatedly said that Vladimir Putin's aggression will not stop at Ukraine, with the alliance's eastern flank members such as the Baltic states, warning of Moscow's hybrid warfare measures. Comments from Kahl and Rutte form the latest talking points about how the West can respond to the threat posed by Russia which will be discussed at the alliance's summit in The Hague later this month. Kahl said Moscow was looking at a confrontations that fell short of a full military engagement and so did not mean that Russian tank armies would roll into western territories but it could launch covert operations into the neighboring Baltic states. "It's enough to send little green men to Estonia to protect supposedly oppressed Russian minorities," he told Table Media, according to Reuters. This is a reference to Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea in which Russian soldiers in unmarked uniforms and civilian clothes dubbed "little green men" when Moscow initially denied their identity. Kahl said Berlin was "quite certain" that Ukraine was a stepping stone for Russia's aggression and Moscow sought to test NATO's resolve. "That doesn't mean we expect tank armies to roll westwards," he added. "But we see that NATO's collective defence promise is to be tested." Meanwhile, NATO secretary general Mark Rutte told the London think tank, Chatham House, on Monday that the military equipment Russia produces in three months what the whole of the alliance produces in a year. Rutte said Russia is expected to roll out 1,500 tanks, 3,000 armored vehicles, and 200 Iskander missiles this year alone and that Moscow could be ready to use military force against NATO within five years. He said that when NATO meets for its summit in The Hague this month he expected alliance members to agree to spending 5 percent of GDP on defense. That summit will take place as the transatlantic alliance faces challenges not just from Russia but amid questions over the current U.S. administration's commitment to the bloc. Mark Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) told the U.S. lawmakers this month that NATO members, even those not within range of Russian long-range fires and including the U.S.— must commit to Rutte's proposal of at least 3.5 percent of GDP on defense and another 1.5 percent on the industrial base, infrastructure protection and cybersecurity. In comments emailed to Newsweek, Montgomery's message to the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on Europe was that Putin is not a misunderstood regional leader or an aggrieved actor reacting to NATO expansion but a "stone-cold killer who has launched wars of conquest." He said that if NATO is to prevail against this Russian threat, U.S. leadership, European defense investments, and collective action are required, added Montgomery, a retired U.S. rear admiral. Bruno Kahl, head of the Federal Intelligence Service: "We are quite certain, and we have intelligence showing it, that Ukraine is only a step on the journey westward." NATO secretary general Mark Rutte, to Chatham House, Monday: "Russia could be ready to use military force against NATO within five is no longer East or West – there is just NATO." Mark Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD): "If NATO is to prevail against this Russian menace it will need U.S. leadership, European defense investments, and collective action to punish its adversaries." "Forward-deploying U.S. forces and equipment across Europe is essential to NATO's warfighting capacity. The answer to the challenge from Russia is not that America should do less, but rather Europe must do more." After a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels last week, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said there was "almost near consensus" on a 5 per cent GDP commitment of defense spending which will be discussed as the alliance meets in the Netherlands between June 24 and 26. Related Articles Russia Won't End Ukraine War Until NATO 'Pulls Out' of Baltics: MoscowUkraine's F-16 Took Down Russian Fighter Jet in 'Historic First': ReportPutin's War Machine Dealt a Double Blow by KyivPutin Approves Military Plans Through to 2050 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia doubts NATO's Article 5, could use 'little green men' to test it, German intelligence chief warns
Russia wants to test NATO's resolve by hostile steps beyond Ukraine, as some Russian officials believe the alliance's collective defense principle no longer works, German intelligence chief Bruno Kahl told the Table Media news outlet in an interview published on June 9. "There are people in Moscow who no longer believe that NATO's Article 5 works. And they would like to test it," Kahl said in the podcast interview. The comments come as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned that Russia could be ready to launch an attack against the alliance within five years. Such stark warnings have become increasingly common since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The chief of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) noted that Moscow sees its war in Ukraine as "only a step on its path westward." Citing intelligence sources, he said Russia may seek to start a lower-intensity confrontation that will test the U.S.'s willingness to fulfill its obligations under Article 5. "They don't need to send tanks for that," Kahl noted. "They just have to send 'little green men' to Estonia to defend the allegedly oppressed Russian minority." Article 5 refers to a key principle of the North Atlantic Treaty, which obliges all members to treat an attack on one member as an attack on all and provide assistance. The article has been invoked only once, following the September 11 terrorist attacks against the U.S. in 2001. The term "little green men" was first used in reference to Russian soldiers without insignia who seized key strategic facilities in Crimea in 2014 in the opening phase of the Russian occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula. Concerns among NATO members about a potential Russian aggression and Washington's commitment to the alliance have grown since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January. The new administration has signaled plans to reduce military presence in Europe, and Trump has even directly challenged the collective defense principle by saying the U.S. would not defend NATO members who do not invest sufficiently in their military capabilities. New German Chancellor Friedrich Merz traveled to Washington last week to meet Trump and discuss joint support for Ukraine and NATO's future. While the talks proceeded relatively smoothly, the German chancellor failed to obtain any concrete commitments from Trump. Multiple Ukrainian and Western officials have warned that Russia may be preparing for an open confrontation with NATO after ending its war against Kyiv. The preparations may pick up pace if Western sanctions are lifted as part of a potential peace deal, Ukrainian intelligence said. Read also: What UK's Strategic Defense Review means for Ukraine We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia has plans to test NATO's resolve, German intelligence chief warns
By Thomas Escritt BERLIN (Reuters) -Russia is determined to test the resolve of the NATO alliance, including by extending its confrontation with the West beyond the borders of Ukraine, the Germany's foreign intelligence chief told the Table Media news organization. Bruno Kahl, head of the Federal Intelligence Service, said his agency had clear intelligence indications that Russian officials believed the collective defence obligations enshrined in the NATO treaty no longer had practical force. "We are quite certain, and we have intelligence showing it, that Ukraine is only a step on the journey westward," Kahl told Table Media in a podcast interview. "That doesn't mean we expect tank armies to roll westwards," he added. "But we see that NATO's collective defence promise is to be tested." Germany, already the second-largest provider of armaments and financial support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, has pledged to step up its support further under the new government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, promising to help Ukraine develop new missiles that could strike deep into Russian territory. Without detailing the nature of his intelligence sources, Kahl said Russian officials were envisaging confrontations that fell short of a full military engagement that would test whether the U.S. would really live up to its mutual aid obligations under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. "They don't need to dispatch armies of tanks for that," he said. "It's enough to send little green men to Estonia to protect supposedly oppressed Russian minorities." Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea involved occupation of buildings and offices by Russian soldiers in unmarked uniforms and civilian clothes, who came to be known as the "little green men" when Moscow initially denied their identity. Kahl did not specify which officials in Moscow were thinking along these lines. Merz, who visited Donald Trump in Washington last week, pushed back against the U.S. president's assertion that Ukraine and Russia were like two infants fighting, telling Trump that where Ukraine targeted Moscow's military, Russia bombed Ukraine's cities. Kahl said his contacts with U.S. counterparts had left him convinced they took the Russian threat seriously. "They take it as seriously as us, thank God," he said.
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Report: Johann Wadephul to become Germany's new foreign minister
Johann Wadephul is set to become Germany's new foreign minister, German media reported on Sunday. The Table Media portal said that the 62-year-old Wadephul, from the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is to be the country's top foreign policy official, replacing Annalena Baerbock. Incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz's coalition government - made up of his CDU, the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union (CSU) and the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) - is set to take office in early May, with leading ministerial positions expected to be announced on Monday. The CDU is due to hold a small party conference in Berlin on Monday to approve the coalition agreement, which also still needs the approval of SPD members in an online ballot that ends on Tuesday. Wadephul, a policy specialist from Germany's northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein, is set to become the CDU's first foreign minister in almost 60 years. He is expected to take the position ahead of Armin Laschet, the CDU's candidate for chancellor in the party's unsuccessful 2021 election campaign. The Table Media report also revealed that Karin Prien is to be named the new education minister. A spokesman for the CDU would not confirm the nominations to dpa on Sunday. In total, the CDU is to hold seven of the 17 Cabinet-level ministerial posts in the new government. The SPD is also set to hold seven, with three going to the CSU. The three parties reached a coalition agreement earlier this month, weeks after February's parliamentary elections.
