Airbus chairman sees ‘strong indications’ an emboldened Putin is mobilizing forces to attack NATO’s eastern flank

President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting of Presidential Council for Culture and Art. (Credit: Vyacheslav Prokofyev—AFP/Getty Images)

• Airbus chair René Obermann says Putin may seize a moment of weakness in the U.S.-Europe alliance to build a strategic land bridge via the Suwałki Gap, which connects the Russian ethnic enclave of Kaliningrad to its client state of Belarus.

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.