Russia may use hybrid tactics to challenge NATO’s unity and resolve beyond the borders of Ukraine, German intelligence chief Bruno Kahl warned in a recent podcast interview with Table Media.
"They don't need to dispatch armies of tanks [...] It's enough to send little green men to Estonia to protect supposedly oppressed Russian minorities," Kahl said in the interview on Monday.
In an excerpt quoted by Reuters, Kohl said Russia was seeking to test whether the United States would honor its mutual aid obligations under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
Information obtained by Germany’s foreign intelligence service suggests Moscow no longer saw NATO’s collective defense commitments as credible.
"We are quite certain, and we have intelligence showing it, that Ukraine is only a step on the journey westward," Kahl said.
Kahl’s comment echoes the hybrid tactics Russia used during its 2014 annexation of Crimea, when Russian soldiers in unmarked uniforms occupied key buildings and became known as the "little green men".
Some experts view these events – and the muted response from the West – as a key factor that emboldened Russia to launch its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Still, according to Reuters, Kahl is convinced that today his U.S. counterparts are taking the Russian threat seriously.
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