DW Berlin Briefing - Inside German politics
Jul 17, 2026 · 46 min · 11 segments
What can a war game tell us about a real-world security crisis? In this episode of Berlin Briefing, DW’s Nina Haase speaks with Carolina Drüten, International Security Correspondent at WELT and…
Carolina DrütenGuest
Roman GoncharenkoGuest
Nina HaaseHost
What if Russia wanted to test NATO, not with a full-scale invasion, but with something smaller, murkier, and harder to respond to? That's a question that military planners have wrestled with for years, especially in the Baltic states, and it feels particularly timely this week after the European Union publicly accused Russia-linked actors of carrying out malicious cyber activities against governments and critical infrastructure across Europe, including in Germany and several other member states.
[suspenseful music] Are, are you saying that Russian troops are on Lithuanian soil?
Strictly speaking, it could justify an attack, but we shouldn't do them that favor.
And when it comes to the Welt exercise, uh, we do not know all the specifics of the war game.
It was my colleagues and I at the German media outlet Welt who ran this war game, and it drew more attention than we had anticipated.
[suspenseful music] This is Ernstfall: What if Russia attacks NATO? Inside a German war game, a podcast by Welt, supported by the German Wargaming Center of the Bundeswehr University Hamburg.
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What if Russia wanted to test NATO, not with a full-scale invasion, but with something smaller, murkier, and harder to respond to? That's a question that military planners have wrestled with for years, especially in the Baltic states, and it feels particularly timely this week after the European Union publicly accused Russia-linked actors of carrying out malicious cyber activities against governments and critical infrastructure across Europe, including in Germany and several other member states.
[suspenseful music] Are, are you saying that Russian troops are on Lithuanian soil?
Strictly speaking, it could justify an attack, but we shouldn't do them that favor.
And when it comes to the Welt exercise, uh, we do not know all the specifics of the war game.
It was my colleagues and I at the German media outlet Welt who ran this war game, and it drew more attention than we had anticipated.
[suspenseful music] This is Ernstfall: What if Russia attacks NATO? Inside a German war game, a podcast by Welt, supported by the German Wargaming Center of the Bundeswehr University Hamburg.