A former NATO commander says Russian President Vladimir Putin 'may be the best thing that ever happened to the NATO alliance'

President Vladimir Putin may be the best thing that ever happened to NATO, according to the former Supreme Allied Commander.

In an interview with Jonathan Capehart, former NATO commander James Stavridis said that Germany's recent boost in defense spending was related to Putin's declaration of an assault on Ukraine.

I was the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO for four years. I would find my way to Chancellor of Germany and the Minister of Defense, Ursula von der Leye, at every meeting of high-level NATO officials. I got nowhere in four years.

In 48 hours, Putin inspired the Germans to double their defense budget, a smart move on the part of Germans.

He told Capehart that Putin may be the best thing to have happened to the NATO alliance.

Germany, Europe's largest economy, announced on February 27 that it would create a special one-off fund of 100 billion euros for military spending. The country's defense budget will be more than 2% of the GDP, reversing a recent decline, according to the Chancellor.

The extra funds were for Germany to fulfill its NATO obligations.

The established global system was out of date and could use a good tune-up, according to the New York Times.

But it is still on the road, rolling along, and, ironically enough, Vladimir Putin has done more in a week to boost it than anything I can remember.

The retired four-star admiral said on Sunday that he thought Putin was unlikely to use nuclear weapons or cross swords with NATO.

NATO outspends Russia 15 to one when there is a conventional conflict. We have an advantage in ground troops. He said that we have a five-to-one advantage in combat aircraft and a six-to-one advantage in warships.

He is not going to fight with the NATO alliance.