Bruno Kahl cited the Ukraine conflict when justifying the increase in military spending

Russia could attack NATO countries after the Ukraine conflict is over, Bruno Kahl, the head of the German foreign intelligence agency (BND), has claimed while defending the drive to boost defense spending.

"We are confident, and have the intelligence data that Ukraine is merely one step on [Russia's] path toward the West," Kahl stated when asked why the Germans should agree to take on "additional debt" to fund the rearmament program and potentially reintroduce conscription abolished in 2011.

"There are people in Moscow who no longer believe that NATO's Article 5 would be upheld - and they would like to put it to the test," the spy chief said. He argued that Russia is skeptical about the US resolve to defend its allies and send American troops "across the Atlantic to die for Tallinn, Riga, or Vilnius."

Russia could "send little green men to Estonia" under the guise of protecting the Baltic state's Russian-speaking minority, Kahl claimed. Western media used the term "little green men" to describe commandos sent to protect the residents of Crimea ahead of the 2014 referendum, in which the largely ethnic Russian region rejected the US-backed coup in Kiev and voted to secede from Ukraine and become a part of Russia.

Kahl suggested that Russia's ultimate goal is to "catapult NATO back to where it was in the late 1990s," and push the US out of Europe. Moscow views the US-led alliance's expansion eastward as a threat, and has cited it as one of the root causes of the Ukraine conflict. President Vladimir Putin, however, said that Russia has no intention of attacking NATO states unless it is attacked first. Moscow also warned that Western military aid to Kiev de facto makes NATO "a direct participant" in the conflict.

Germany has ramped up its hostile rhetoric against Russia under new chancellor Friedrich Merz who said last month Ukraine could receive long-range Taurus cruise missiles. He also pledged to assist Ukraine in the production of its own long-range weapons. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has responded by accusing Germany of undermining the peace process.

(RT.com)