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Vladimir Putin (Photo: REUTERS/Ramil Sitdikov)
The Russian State Duma approved a bill that would expand dictator
Vladimir Putin’s authority to deploy Russian forces abroad “to protect the
rights of Russian citizens,” independent newspaper The Moscow Times reported on
April 14.
According to the bill, reported by the state propaganda agency Interfax, the dictator could use the Russian military for operations overseas “in the event of the arrest, detention, criminal or other prosecution of Russians.” Interfax said the bill refers to measures taken by foreign courts “acting without Russia’s participation” and to international judicial bodies that the Kremlin does not recognize.
The bill was introduced after a series of warnings from NATO and European intelligence services about possible Russian preparations for a military conflict with one or more NATO countries.
In June 2025, Bruno Kahl, then-head of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND), told lawmakers that German intelligence had “concrete evidence” that Russia was planning an attack on NATO territory to test the effectiveness of Article 5. Kahl said the Kremlin no longer trusts that NATO’s guarantees under Article 5 would be honored and might try to test them.
In October 2025, Kahl’s successor, Martin Eger, told Germany’s Bundestag that Putin appeared intent on testing Europe’s borders and that such actions could at any moment escalate into “a hot conflict.” He added that Russia’s use of hybrid tactics to achieve that aim had become widespread and represented a new level of confrontation in which Moscow regarded European states as adversaries.
In a 2025 report, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned
that if Russia were to attack NATO countries, one of its main targets would
likely be energy infrastructure, a tactic Russia has used in its war against
Ukraine.
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