Head Of German Intelligence Service: Putin Would Attack NATO Without Fear

The West must clearly demonstrate its defensive capabilities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be afraid to attack a NATO member country if Russian troops are successful in Ukraine, says Bruno Kahl, president of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), reports Deutsche Welle.

“If Ukraine were forced to capitulate, this would not quench Russia’s thirst for power,” the German weekly Focus magazine quoted excerpts from an interview with Kahl on Friday, January 26.

If the West does not clearly demonstrate its defensive capabilities, Putin will have no reason not to attack the North Atlantic Alliance, the head of the BND believes.

“Putin considers his goal to be the restoration of former power and great power, and it will be bad if this readiness for violence in foreign policy begins to prevail and Europe capitulates to it,” Bruno Kahl emphasized.

Kahl assessed the possibility of a change of power in Russia with skepticism, saying that Vladimir Putin is “firmly in the saddle.” According to him, Putin has unlimited power in the Kremlin and currently there are no people who can in any way influence his actions. Even if he “fell out of a window or suffered in some other way,” there are enough people in Russia who think exactly the same way as he does and will pursue exactly the same policy, explained the president of the German Federal Intelligence Service.