this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2025
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175
Airbus chairman sees ‘strong indications’ an emboldened Putin is mobilizing forces to attack NATO’s eastern flank (fortune.com)
submitted 3 days ago by Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.org to c/europe@feddit.org
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Archived

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.

[...]

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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[–] rimu@piefed.social 64 points 3 days ago (2 children)

The headline should have been "Weapons manufacturer thinks everyone should buy more weapons".

[–] Anyone@slrpnk.net 49 points 3 days ago

@queermunist@lemmy.ml

@rimu@piefed.social

Mr. Obermann may have a business interest here, but his remarks regarding Russia's economy are absolutely valid. Putin has turned Russia into a 'war economy' with the whole country depending on war. Even Russian economists -including from the Central Bank- warn that the country will be facing difficult times if peace breaks out (which may also mean it would be difficult for Putin to stay in power as soon as the war ends and there is no enemy anymore).

So Obermann's comment that "the internal pressure [in Russia] to deliver new victories through military conquest likely will grow", is very real. Putin put his country on a war path for the long term. For example, Russia's defense minister is an economist claiming that war would be a requirement for economic growth (this is, of course, complete rubbish, but this comes from Russia's government).

I wrote a comment regarding Russia's economy in a different thread and don't want to repeat it, so here is the link if you are interested: https://slrpnk.net/post/19670037/14488418

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