Germany has evidence of Russia's plans to attack NATO, says Germany's spy chief

Bruno Kahl, President of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND), has said that Russia is preparing to test the credibility of NATO’s Article 5, adding that German intelligence has concrete evidence of the Kremlin’s preparations for potential aggression against the Alliance.

Source: Kahl in a podcast for German outlet Table Briefings, as reported by The Times

Details: The BND chief emphasised that Moscow no longer believes in the reliability of NATO’s collective defence system – particularly Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which guarantees a joint response in the event of an attack on a member state. He warned that the Kremlin may attempt to test this provision in practice.

Quote: "We are very sure, and we have intelligence evidence to back this up, that [Russia’s full-scale invasion of] Ukraine is only one step on Russia’s path towards the west." 

More details: Kahl clarified that this "doesn’t mean that we expect large tank battalions to roll from the east to the west".

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has issued similar warnings in the past, repeatedly stating that Germany must be "ready for war" by the end of this decade.

"Our experts estimate that it could be possible within a period of five to eight years," Pistorius said in an interview with German TV news service Tagesspiegel last year.

In its February report, Denmark’s military intelligence concluded that after the war in Ukraine ends, Russia could redeploy substantial forces to the borders of other European countries within six months.

Kahl also warned that Russia seeks to "push NATO back to its 1990s boundaries", "kick out" the US from Europe and "expand its influence by any means necessary".

"We need to nip this in the bud," Kahl stressed.

Meanwhile, he noted that despite certain tensions, cooperation with the United States remains stable. "The Americans take Article 5 very seriously, but they rightly insist Europe must do its part," he said.

Sinan Selen, Deputy Director General of Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), stated that Russia is increasingly using cyberattacks and sabotage against Western countries.

"We have noticed that Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has led to our cyber and espionage defences being increasingly tested," Selen said.

An annual report by the BfV reveals that Russia has begun actively deploying so-called "low-level agents" to carry out sabotage operations, particularly placing incendiary devices in parcels, resulting in a series of fires at logistics centres across Europe.

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