SECURITY: Moscow Doubts NATO's Committment To Article 5, German Intelligence

Reuters reporting comments from Bruno Kahl, the head of the German Foreign Intelligence agency BND, warning that Russian officials doubt that NATO members will stand behind its Article 5 commitment to mutual defence. 

• Kahl says, “the Kremlin sees Germany as an adversary, we are in a direct confrontation with Moscow,” noting that “Russia has started to use kinetic measures against the West, including acts of sabotage against infrastructure... Russia is not only restructuring its military districts but also ramping up its land forces.” Adds that, “Russia is massively disrupting Western satellite navigation systems.”
• Kahl says, “We expect a further escalation of this situation… there is a rising risk this will raise question of invoking NATO Article 5.”
• Kahl warns, “high-ranking officials in Moscow apparently doubt whether NATO will stand united behind its article 5 commitments,” adding that “this increases the risk of a military confrontation with Russia... Russia's is aiming to prove that NATO will not stand united in an Article 5 scenario.”
• The comments come as European intelligence services escalate warnings of increased Russian hybrid warfare tactics, including suspected attacks on underwater cables and pipes connecting Europe’s energy and communications network.
• Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at the NATO summit in July, “We are simply too polite. They are attacking us every day now.”
• The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) thinktank notes, “Russia is intensifying its hybrid war in Europe, mounting more frequent operations with a constantly shifting front line. But despite Western governments’ increasingly vocal concerns over Russian activity, they have limited coordinated means to defend against it.”