Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Wednesday that he would bolster Russia’s military and intelligence abilities. His statements came in a meeting with military and security chiefs in the Kremlin and were posted on the Kremlin’s website, apparently as a response to U.S. plans to put troops and a missile defense system in Eastern Europe.

Putin said that the U.S. initiatives are a security challenge for Russia. Washington says they are to protect the United States and Europe from Iranian and other missile attacks. “Alternative ways of protection from hypothetical missile threats which we proposed have been left unanswered,” Putin said. “All-around strengthening of our military forces is one of our indisputable priorities,” he added.

Putin said new weapons were a priority, as well as bolstering the Foreign Intelligence Service, formerly the kgb. “The situation in the world and internal political interests require the Foreign Intelligence Service to permanently increase its capabilities, primarily in the field of information and analytical support for the country’s leadership,” Putin said.

“Stratfor never takes such statements from people who possess nuclear capabilities lightly,” the strategic forecasting firm reported on Thursday.

Putin is a former kgb agent who spent 17 years in the spy agency’s foreign intelligence wing.

U.S. and British officials say that Moscow has already stepped up its spying activities against their countries.

The president not only talks the talk, he walks the walk. Putin’s new push comes on top of seven years of double-digit percentage increases in defense spending and corresponds with an immense overhaul of the country’s defense industry, the latest dangerous fruits of which include an advanced air defense missile system and two types of advanced intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Although Washington is concerned that the Russian bear is again on the move, the most important ramification of Russia’s surge will be Europe‘s response. Expect Germany and the rest of Europe to keep a close eye on Moscow’s troop and spy surge; the last thing Europe wants is a neo-kgb and a Soviet-style military standing in jackboots on its eastern porch. Expect the EU to respond with progressively stronger defense talk and a dangerous military walk.