NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg addresses media during a foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium. (Photo: NATO)
NATO SUMMIT 2024 — In the wake of a report that Russia plotted to kill a major German defense industry figure, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called out Moscow for what he called its “campaign” to “intimidate” alliance members across Europe.
“I won’t go into that specific report, but I can say, we have seen a pattern, a Russian campaign, organized by the security services, to commit hostile actions against NATO allies,” Stoltenberg said today here at the NATO Summit, standing alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Stoltenberg listed cyberattacks, arson and other “different types of hostile actions” as among the actions perpetrated by Russia.
“These are not standalone incidents; these are part of an ongoing Russian campaign,” he said. “The purpose of the campaign is to intimidate NATO allies” into halting their aid to Ukraine.
But, he said, the campaign, if anything, has had the “opposite effect” as evidenced by the outpouring of support for Ukraine at the summit in the form of additional pledged air defenses, financial aid and security agreements.
The comments came hours after CNN reported that the US and Germany had foiled a Russian plot to assassinate Armin Papperger, CEO of German defense industry giant Rheinmetall. According to the CNN report, US intelligence uncovered the plot and passed a warning along to counterparts in Berlin. CNN said the plot was one in a series of plans to kill defense industry executives across Europe.
Last month Rheinmetall signed an agreement with the Ukrainian government to “expand their strategic cooperation.”
“Specifically, we are already in talks to establish a joint venture for the production of artillery ammunition in Ukraine,” Papperger said at the time. “We also want to hand over the first Lynx infantry fighting vehicles to the country this year and start manufacturing these systems in Ukraine in the near future.”
The company did not immediately respond to Breaking Defense’s request for comment, nor did the CIA. CNN reported that the Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to the news organization’s request for comment.
While Estonia’s defense minister said earlier this week that giving Russia’s hybrid activity too much attention plays into Moscow’s hands, it has nonetheless become one dominant topic at the conference. In recent months there have been arrests in several countries of individuals who governments say conducted criminal acts on Russia’s behalf, from arsons in Estonia to sabotage in Poland. CNN also reported this week that US military bases in Europe increased their security in response to the Russian sabotage threat.
In May, NATO issued a public warning about “recent malign activities” that the alliance said were “part of an intensifying campaign of activities which Russia continues to carry out across the Euro-Atlantic area, including on Alliance territory and through proxies.”
Often described as hybrid or gray-zone activity, the incidents are designed to be difficult to attribute and to take place on a level below that of armed conflict — lowering the odds that any individual nation would consider invoking NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense clause in response.
Estonia’s defense minister, Hanno Pevkur, suggested that would be an overreaction and a strategic mistake, but it’s clear other nations are losing their patience. On Wednesday Lithuania’s foreign minister, , said the hybrid activity amounted to “terrorist attacks.”
The assassination of defense industry figures would certainly be a significant escalation in hybrid activity, and would likely intensify the ongoing debate about how NATO should respond and whether it rises to the level of Article 5.
Before CNN’s report was published, Polish Foreign Minister
Theresa Hitchens contributed to this report.
