Russia could be at war with NATO "within the next decade," intelligence report says

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Artem Geodakyan/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

• Russia may be preparing for a “confrontation with the West,” says Estonia’s intelligence service.
• The agency said NATO may find itself at war with Russia in the next 10 years.
• “Russia has chosen a path which is a long-term confrontation,” said Estonia’s intelligence chief.

NATO may find itself at war with Russia in the next 10 years, says Estonia’s foreign intelligence service.

The intelligence agency said in a report on Tuesday that Russia may be preparing for a “confrontation with the West.”

“The Kremlin is probably anticipating a possible conflict with NATO within the next decade,” read the report, which said that Estonia expects a “significant increase in Russian forces near the Estonian border in the coming years.”

Kaupo Rosin, who leads the agency, told reporters that a Russian attack is “highly unlikely” in the short term given the ongoing Ukraine war.

But, Rosin said, an attack could still occur if NATO members did not step up on their defense.

“Russia has chosen a path which is a long-term confrontation,” Rosin said during the report’s launch, per Reuters.

“If we are not prepared, the likelihood of a military Russian attack would be much higher than without any preparation,” he told reporters.

Estonia’s assessment of Russia comes just days after GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump criticized NATO during a campaign event in South Carolina.

On Saturday, Trump said that he’d encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to NATO members who didn’t meet their spending obligations.

The former president has drawn flak for his comments on the military alliance. The White House panned Trump’s remarks on Saturday night, saying that they were “appalling and unhinged.”

“Trump hates alliances. He hates an obligation where he’d have to live up to something,” retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, a former commander of US Army Europe, told the British newspaper The Times on Monday.

“Mafia type that he is, he doesn’t want anybody restricting his options,” Hodges said. “He couldn’t care less about moral obligations. He’s willing to chuck the whole thing away,”

Representatives for Russia’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.