[adventured]

The NATO alliance - and EU - is going to need a lot of hardware and technology to stop Russia if it's going to arm-up and empire-up, if it plans to take Ukraine with the help of Belarus and then potentially move on to other targets after that (Baltics, Moldova, Poland, Sweden, Finland, whichever). Russia has clearly taken over Belarus here, this is the USSR beginning to march with multiple armies again. If Putin redirects his nation into a persistent war footing, and redirects his nation's resources into war mode (shifting to mass killing the opposition outright as in the old days, Stalinification), then for a stretch of time that will be a very dangerous, very potent effect and will enable Russia to push outward militarily in a way they otherwise wouldn't be able to (and yes it'll run out of fuel eventually, as it's a rapid depletion move, but for N years it'll be a very potent adversary).

$150 billion might not be enough, unless Germany plans to play no role in defending the eastern flank of NATO as Russia marches. They have been badly underfunded for decades, $150b is a down payment on catching up.

Putin's Russia is going to be in an economic and political swamp for a long time for this, it wouldn't be surprising if he chooses to move on to a new target promptly after Ukraine just because why not. The same crazy calculation that gets us here, it isn't too far of a stretch from there to argue (if you're Putin) for trying to take some of Finland's territory.

Germany needs to take this very seriously and I think they're beginning to.