Russia is preparing to "launch an attack against NATO by the end of this decade at the latest," with Russian President Vladimir Putin hoping to achieve his goals of pushing the United States out of Europe and restoring Russian dominance, Bruno Kahl, the head of BND, Germany's foreign intelligence service has warned parliamentarians.
"Direct military confrontation with NATO has become an option for Moscow," Kahl warned at an annual hearing of the Bundestag's Control Committee in Berlin on Monday, saying that "whether we like it or not, we are in a direct conflict with Russia," reported Euronews.
He added that Russia's willingness to use covert and hybrid attacks has reached a "level previously unseen," reported Politico.
Putin is planning to continue tests on the West's red lines to "further escalate the confrontation," said Kahl, noting that the Kremlin has been boosting Russia's military to prepare for an attack.
"The Russian armed forces will probably be in a position, in terms of personnel and material, to launch an attack against NATO by the end of this decade at the latest," Kahl told the parliamentarians.
He pointed out that even though Russia has been fighting a full war with Ukraine since February 2022, it still is spending far more on its military and growing conventional troops while outspending Europe's nations.
"The focus of this buildup is, of course, in the strategic direction west along NATO's eastern flank," Kahl commented.
Meanwhile, Thomas Haldenwang, who heads the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic intelligence agency, said "aggressive behavior" from Russian intelligence services has been observed.
He added that sabotage and espionage by Russians in Germany have grown "quantitatively and qualitatively," reaching a level in recent months "that should be a wakeup call for everyone," reports Euronews.
Haldenwang added that his office has observed "aggressive actions" on the part of Russia's intelligence services.
Martina Rosenberg, the chief of the Military Counterintelligence Service, was also present at the hearing.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied their remarks and told reporters in Moscow that Russia has never moved any military infrastructure toward NATO nations.
"To say that it is the Russian armed forces that pose a danger is absolutely wrong, illogical, and contradicts the whole course of history, which led to the confrontation that we are all experiencing together now," he said.
CNN reported this summer that intelligence authorities from the United States and Germany stopped a Russian assassination plot against the CEO of Rheinmetall, which makes weapons Germany is sending to Ukraine.