Putin ordered Russia to ‘break NATO and EU apart from within’ in 2026
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin (Photo: Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Kremlin via REUTERS)
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin instructed Russia’s
intelligence agencies and military at a secret meeting in December 2025 to
“break NATO and the European Union apart from within” in 2026, The
New York Times reported, citing sources.
Before the meeting, however, Putin had publicly struck the
opposite tone. In a December address to Russia’s military leadership, he
accused European leaders of “stoking hysteria” over the threat posed by Russia.
Moldova occupies a central place in the Kremlin’s reported
effort to fracture the EU and NATO. Western intelligence officials rank
conquering Ukraine as Moscow’s top priority and establishing control over
Moldova as its second.
Although Moldova belongs to neither the EU nor NATO, it is
strategically positioned between Ukraine and NATO territory, the Times
reported.
Control of Moldova would give Russia an ideal staging ground
for further attacks on Ukraine or the West, officials said. They added that
Putin still hopes to seize part of southern Ukraine and establish a land
corridor connecting Russia with Moldova.
A map of planned Russian troop movements displayed by
Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko at the start of the full-scale war
showed Russian forces advancing toward the unrecognized breakaway region of
Transnistria.
In early March, a Russian strike on a Ukrainian
hydroelectric power plant near the Moldovan border contaminated water supplies
over a wide area in both countries.
Russian drones later struck a high-voltage line that carried
as much as 70% of Moldova’s electricity, causing blackouts.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 6 that U.S.
intelligence agencies believe Putin could test NATO’s commitment to collective
defense by attacking a member state between fall 2026 and 2029.
Carsten Breuer, Germany’s top military commander, later told
the Journal that Russia was systematically using drones to study European air
defenses and identify weaknesses it could exploit.
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