US ambassador urges NATO vigilance: ‘You can’t predict what Vladimir Putin’s going to do’

Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, is urging the military alliance’s members to boost defense spending and weapons production to prepare for emerging Russian threats.

“You can’t predict what Vladimir Putin’s going to do or any adversary,” he told USA Today during an interview at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels, referring to the Russian president.

“All you can do is be prepared for it and deter and make it not worth their time to make that move,” the ambassador continued. “And I think we are preparing every single day to prevent that from happening, and if it does happen, to be ready for it. We should know that our adversary invaded Ukraine, and so we should all be pretty clear-eyed.”

Whitaker’s call follows reporting from The Wall Street Journal last month on a leaked U.S. intelligence assessment that reportedly found Russia could attempt to launch a limited assault on a NATO country in the next few years.

A previous U.S. assessment predicted Putin would hold off an assault on a NATO-allied country while he was still engaged in a war against Ukraine. U.S. officials told the Journal the assessment shifted earlier this year amid increasing pressure in Russia to end the years-long conflict.

Whitaker declined to comment on this leaked report to USA Today, according to the outlet, instead focusing on calling on NATO nations to up defense spending.

“We need to exercise like it matters,” he told the publication. “We need to prepare, we need to invest in capabilities.”

NATO countries agreed last year to invest five percent of their annual gross domestic product in defense spending by 2035, including 3.5 percent for military spending.

Last week, CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a surprise visit to Moscow to warn Russia against launching an attack against NATO countries, the Journal first reported .

President Trump described the trip as “semi-routine” in an interview with conservative talk show host Glenn Beck, who pressed the president about whether Putin would “test NATO resolve.”

“John Ratcliffe is a fantastic guy,” Trump said. “He’s the head of the CIA, and he is not in there for any of the things you said.”