Kremlin will want to test unity of West and effectiveness of NATO Article 5, - German intelligence chief Kahl
Russia is likely to want to test the unity of Western countries and the effectiveness of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to European Pravda.
Thus, the head of the German intelligence agency BND, Bruno Kahl, believes it is likely that Russia will want to test the unity of the West and the effectiveness of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which provides that an attack on one of the NATO member states is considered an attack on all.
"We really hope that this will not happen... But we have to assume that Russia will want to test us, to test the unity of the West," he said.
Kahl believes that the timing and likelihood of such a "test" is directly related to how events in the Russian-Ukrainian war develop further.
He noted that if the war ended before 2029-2030, then Russia would be able to become a threat to Europe more quickly.
"It is also possible that a specific threat or blackmail attempt by Russia against European states will happen earlier than previously thought... An earlier end to the war in Ukraine would allow the Russians to redirect their energy where they want it most - against Europe," Kahl said.
According to him, Russia hopes that the future shape of the world order will be similar to that of the 1990s and that the Russian "sphere of influence" will expand further west, and in their preferred scenario, the United States will withdraw its troops from Europe.
