Emboldened by the Trump administration’s split with Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin may be preparing to directly test the resolve of the postwar Western military alliance.
In an interview with German business daily Handelsblatt, the chairman of European aerospace and defense group Airbus warned the continent needs to arm itself now that it’s likely the United States will not honor its obligations under NATO’s Article 5 common defense clause.
“There are strong indications that Russia is preparing an attack on NATO’s eastern flank,” René Obermann told the newspaper on Monday, adding that Putin will not likely wait until Europe has enough time to build up its own sovereign capabilities for deterrence before striking.
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Obermann argues the Russian dictator has placed his country’s economy on a wartime footing with a fiscally unsustainable 10% of gross domestic product diverted to its military, according to Obermann. That’s five times the NATO minimum target, and Putin also plans to mobilize 1.5 million soldiers—the world’s second largest standing army after China.
With so much already invested, ending his expansionist campaign and returning to peace risks the one thing Putin appears to fear most—political upheaval. That may be one reason why a joint military exercise is planned for this year in Russia’s neighboring client state of Belarus.
“That is reminiscent of the events leading up to the Ukraine invasion. Furthermore, the internal pressure [in Russia] to deliver new victories through military conquest likely will grow,” he said.
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This, Russians can plan attacking whole world, but what with if they can’t properly invade even Ukraine? As per enemies only realistic ones are Russians, I can’t imagine others traveling that far and attacking Europe 🤷♂️ There is also Hungary 🤦♂️
We do not only need to be able to defend ourselves, but also other nations. Only if everyone works together, to deter aggressions, can we have peace. Otherwise nations will attack others with smaller or even similar military power.
While this is true in general, it’s a slippery slope. If you look at current state, even now we are enabling genocide in Palestine under disguise of protecting others. With greater power the temptation will only rise. OTOH we need to exercise our interests, hopefully humane and legitimate.
They can only do that because the USA backs them. Imagine a world where everyone would tell them to fuck off and actually do something if they do not. So less blablabla and more doing like with the first Gulf war. August 1990 Sadam fucked around and only 5 months later they found out. Simple.
US and Europe lead by Germany. As per Sadam, you’re referring to that war where Iraqi soldiers were throwing Kuwaiti newborns out of incubators? What about the recent one where fictional WMDs were the trigger to obliterate them including civilians?
Are you suggesting the Sadam did not invade Kuwait?
And don’t forget Hamas beheading babies! Some racist trope about barbaric middle easterners killing babies always gets our juices flowing. Doesn’t matter that none of this ever happened, it’s war time baby and we’re the good guys!