Author: Joshua Posaner, Laura Kayali, Eva Hartog, Giovanna Coi, Max Griera

BRUSSELS — Forget Donald Trump: Europe’s need to ramp up on defense is all about Vladimir Putin. So says two-time Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius, who persuaded the European Parliament to approve his candidacy to be the bloc’s first defense and space commissioner on Wednesday by insisting it’s time to get real about the threat from Moscow. “[The] Russians can produce [within] six months everything that Germany has in their stocks,” he said at the outset of a three-hour grilling by MEPs. “That should be a warning signal to all of us.” While insisting he should be known as the…