Finland's Ex-intelligence Chief: Putin Preparing For 'small Operation' Against NATO Country

• 17.01.2026, 14:59

The Kremlin wants to challenge the Alliance's Article 5.

The aggressor country Russia is exhausted by the war in Ukraine and cannot pose a large-scale military threat to NATO. However, the Kremlin is capable of challenging Article 5. This was told in an interview aired on "Studio West" by Pekka Toveri, the former head of Finnish military intelligence and a member of the European Parliament.

According to him, Russia is preparing for a long war, which is indicated, in particular, by the transfer of the economy to the "rails of war," while everything else in the Russian Federation is suffering and decaying.

"They are trying to form new strategic reserves to prepare for a possible confrontation with NATO as soon as possible. Recently, however, Russia has been facing increasing difficulties due to Ukraine's strong defenses. Russian troops are suffering more and more losses," the former intelligence chief emphasized.

Russia is preparing for a limited operation against a NATO member state

Kremlin, no matter what, wants to try to conduct a small operation against one of the NATO member states to further blackmail the Alliance with nuclear threats.

"The calculation is simple - to provoke a split and see if NATO will "break" and not stand up for one of its members. This is the development they are probably preparing for, and it is a very realistic scenario in the short term," Toveri added.