European officials see no signs of Russia preparing a strike on NATO

Bloomberg reported that European officials see no signs of Russia preparing a conventional attack on NATO or one of the Baltic states and do not confirm the version that the main purpose of CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s trip to Moscow this week was to prevent such a strike.

According to the agency, none of the European officials were briefed on the details of Ratcliffe’s meeting with the Russian side, so their assessments are based on their own intelligence and on an understanding of how Washington usually acts.

Among the possible topics of the visit, Bloomberg’s sources include the end of the war against Ukraine, confirmation of the strength of guarantees under NATO Article 5, and the war with Iran. One of them suggested that the trip may also have been aimed at ensuring that Russia would not react too sharply to U.S. economic measures against Iran and would stop supporting Tehran.

Intelligence services and governments of NATO countries had already warned in early August that Russian спецслужбы were working on hybrid operations against the Baltic states and Poland, including sabotage of critical infrastructure and false-flag provocations using Ukrainian drones.

At the same time, according to European Bloomberg sources, fresh data do not show any changes in Russia’s military posture. On Thursday, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna and Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže separately said that their assessment of the threat from Russia had not changed.

Sources

• Material: thebell.io