ussia wants to test the NATO alliance and extend its confrontation with the West beyond Ukraine, according to Germany’s foreign intelligence chief.

The warning by Bruno Kahl comes as NATO chief Mark Rutte said that Russia’s military industrial complex was producing arms at a rate quick enough to allow Moscow ready to attack the alliance within five years.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment.

Why It Matters

NATO leaders have repeatedly said that Vladimir Putin‘s aggression will not stop at Ukraine, with the alliance’s eastern flank members such as the Baltic states, warning of Moscow’s hybrid warfare measures.

Comments from Kahl and Rutte form the latest talking points about how the West can respond to the threat posed by Russia which will be discussed at the alliance’s summit in The Hague later this month.

What To Know

Kahl said Moscow was looking at a confrontations that fell short of a full military engagement and so did not mean that Russian tank armies would roll into western territories but it could launch covert operations into the neighboring Baltic states.

“It’s enough to send little green men to Estonia to protect supposedly oppressed Russian minorities,” he told Table Media, according to Reuters.