In Response to Russian Aggression, Germany Should Trigger NATO’s Article 4

By Noah Rothman

Wednesday, September 02, 2026

 

Western intelligence services have long had high confidence that Russian military intelligence was behind a sophisticated, transnational terrorist event inside Germany in the summer of 2024. Had the plot in Leipzig succeeded, a series of homemade explosive devices would have detonated aboard U.S.-bound private cargo aircraft, potentially igniting a crisis the like of which the world has not seen since the Soviet attack on a Korean airliner in 1983.

 

The German government now believes that Russia was also behind a second event in Leipzig last month, in which several explosive-laden drones were deployed against Ukrainian and private cargo aircraft in and around the Leipzig/Halle Airport. The attack bore a signature “known to us from other Russian hybrid operations and its war against Ukraine,” said German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt. All evidence implicates “people being involved who acted on behalf of Russian state entities,” he added.

 

These are only some of the most dangerous episodes of what are believed to be a Russian-directed campaign of “sabotage and malign activity.” Indeed, since the second invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Associated Press has tracked about 200 such incidents. In recent weeks, though, the tempo of attacks has increased, as has the attackers’ boldness.

 

Within days of the initial reports indicating that the German government would point an accusatory finger at Russia, its terrorist tormentors ramped up their activities. On Tuesday, unknown attackers deployed explosive “projectiles” armed with conductive materials designed to short-circuit power lines against a Brandenburg substation. Several more unexploded bombs were later discovered in the area. Within 24 hours, another bomb exploded in a passageway inside an Augsburg train station, injuring two German teenagers. In what may be a related event, officials are reportedly investigating a third “act of premeditated vandalism” targeting a power substation near Bergheim.

 

It all contributes to Berlin’s conclusion that Germany is the target of a campaign of “grey hybrid warfare” conspicuously timed to coincide with its accusations against Moscow.

 

In response to what European officials regard as a Russian campaign of state-sponsored terrorism, Germany will close the Russian consulate in Bonn and, eventually, a cultural center in Berlin. The German government will summon Russian diplomatic entities for consultation, and it plans to address the violations of its sovereignty with the North Atlantic Council and the EU’s council of foreign ministers. Berlin will not, however, invoke Article 4 of the NATO charter, which compels member states to convene in response to a direct threat to the alliance’s collective security.

 

Despite the German government’s desirably honest appraisal of who attacked it and why, the German foreign minister’s remarks betray the pusillanimity that has for decades typified Western Europe’s response to Russian aggression. “There is no overreaction on our part, but there is a response when we are attacked,” Germany’s top diplomat, Johann Wadephul, said. “Russia must understand that Germany is a stabilizing force in Europe — one that is always ready to negotiate but will not be intimidated in any way.”

 

Invoking NATO’s consultation provisions would not be an “overreaction” to any number of recent provocations, any one of which has the potential to spark an international incident with momentum and logic all its own. That is precisely what NATO is for. Demonstrating that the alliance is serious about its mission is not incitement. Indeed, it is one of the few things that deters Vladimir Putin’s Russia from miscalculating its way into a conventional conflict with the West.

 

Article 4 has been invoked many times in recent years, none of which resulted in the activation of NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense provisions. Within days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, what was once the Eastern Bloc — Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia — invoked Article 4. Poland did the same in September of last year after the alliance deployed fighter jets to down a series of Russian attack drones that penetrated deep inside Polish territory. Thirteen days later, the alliance responded to Estonia’s request for Article 4 consultations when three Russian fighter jets pierced its airspace.

 

The German government is no longer being coy about the nature of Russia’s threat to it and the whole of Europe. That’s desirable, but it’s not enough. Until Western Europe discovers the kind of courage its Eastern neighbors evince when confronted with Russian aggression, Russian aggression will persist. And each of Moscow’s subsequent provocations will grow bolder until one goes too far, compelling NATO to respond or concede that it is little more than a paper tiger.

 

Deterring Russian recklessness with a muscular response to actions like these isn’t an “overreaction.” It’s a rational and reasonable response, and a necessary one if the alliance’s goal is to convince Putin not to test the alliance’s resolve in ways that may spin out of his — or anyone else’s — control.