Estonia's Foreign Intelligence Service assesses that Russia has no intention of launching a military attack on any NATO state this year or next, but will continue rebuilding its armed forces due to concerns about European rearmament, according to the agency's annual report.
The intelligence service expects this forecast to remain unchanged next year, as Europe has implemented measures forcing Russia to carefully calculate its actions regarding NATO countries.
"Europe must invest in defense and internal security so that in the future Russia concludes it has no chance against NATO countries," intelligence chief Kauppo Rosin told journalists.
According to Rosin, Russia will focus its efforts in the coming years on halting Europe's rearmament. "We see that Russian leadership is very concerned about Europe's rearmament, they see that Europe may be capable of conducting independent military operations against Russia in two to three years," he said.
Intelligence analysts estimate that Russia seeks to expand cooperation with the United States to secure the lifting of American sanctions. "Despite this illusory thaw, Russia's goals remain unchanged: it seeks to marginalize the United States and NATO and rebuild Europe's security architecture according to Moscow's vision," the report states.
Lieutenant General Gerhard Funke, head of Germany's Armed Forces Support Command, said earlier he believes Russia will attack NATO countries within two to three years.
Meanwhile, NATO plans to undertake massive rearmament along its border with Russia and Belarus over the next two years, accumulate significantly more weapons there, and create an unmanned robotic zone.
