No one is safe from the \u2018Russian propaganda\u2019 sanctions \u2013 even those who never touch Russian sources<\/p>\n
On December 15, 2025, the European Union slapped sanctions on former Swiss intelligence officer and ex-NATO employee Jacques Baud. No day in court, no charges filed, just abrupt, suffocating, sanctions.
\nWhy did the EU sanction Baud? For \u201cRussian propaganda,\u201d\u00a0of course, although many of the sources he cites in his reports on the West provoking war with Russia years prior to Russia\u2019s military operation are Western and Ukrainian \u2013 including the SBU and Aleksey Arestovich, a former adviser to Vladimir Zelensky.
\nWelcome to the latest EU insanity.
\nWidely respected for his deep knowledge and analysis, much of which is based on his own research while working with NATO, Baud has grown increasingly popular over the years, appearing on numerous podcasts and interviews, authoring numerous books and articles as well.
\nSince Russia began its military operation in Ukraine, Western media have been howling about an \u201cunprovoked invasion.\u201d\u00a0Baud has written and spoken extensively about realities which counter this claim: facts on the ground prior to February 2022, going back (unlike most legacy media who have developed selective amnesia) to even before the 2014 Maidan coup.
\nWhat is interesting about Baud is he does not use Russian sources to back his claims and he has not taken a public position in favor of either Russia or Ukraine.
\nHe has simply analyzed the situation, based on information he had access to. How did he have access to this information? In 2014, when working for NATO in charge of countering proliferation of small arms, he was tasked with investigating accusations of Russia supplying arms to Donbass resistance.
\nHe wrote of this in 2022, noting, \u201cThe information we received then came almost entirely from Polish intelligence services and did not \u2018fit\u2019 with the information coming from the OSCE \u2013 despite rather crude allegations, there were no deliveries of weapons and military equipment from Russia.
\n\u201cThe rebels were armed thanks to the defection of Russian-speaking Ukrainian units that went over to the rebel side. As Ukrainian failures continued, tank, artillery and anti-aircraft battalions swelled the ranks of the autonomists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
The Russian Art of War: How the West led Ukraine to defeat (ex-NATO analyst Col. Jacques Baud)<\/p>\n
As a result of his research, he was also able to unequivocally debunk accusations of Russia sending military units into Donbass, by quoting the SBU (Ukrainian security service) itself as well as other Ukrainian sources.
\nIn a September 2024 interview I did with Baud, he spoke of this.
\n\u201cI can categorically say no, there were no Russian forces in Donbass. The guy you encountered (I had mentioned meeting one sole Russian former soldier when I went to the Donbass in 2019) represents exactly the kind of Russian presence that was at that time, recognized by the SBU and recognized also by the Ukrainian Chief of Staff.
\n\u201cIn a public interview in 2015, just after the signature of the Minsk Agreement 2, the head of the Ukrainian General Staff said publicly that there were no Russian military units fighting in Donbass; that there were only individual soldiers exactly the same case as the one you just mentioned.\u201d
\nIt is clear he is not citing Russian information (or \u201cpropaganda\u201d) but Ukrainian and Western sources. An even better illustration of this is what he had to say about the prelude to Russia commencing its Special Military Operation in February 2022.
\nReferring to a March 2021 decree by Zelensky (to take back Crimea and the south of Ukraine), Baud spoke of an interview two years prior with Zelensky\u2019s former adviser, Arestovich.
\n\u201cHe says in order to join NATO, we had to have a war with Russia. When the interviewer asked him when would this conflict happen, Arestovich says end of 2021 or 2022.\u201d\u00a0 A position, Baud noted, which aligned with a March 2019 300-page document published by the Rand Corporation, \u201cthat explains how to defeat and to destabilize Russia.\u201d
\nThe EU is almost certainly pissed off that Baud likewise demolished the Western propaganda claims about Russia invading Crimea in 2014. He told me, \u201cThe Ukrainian army at that time was a conscript army, meaning that within the Ukrainian army you had both Ukrainian speakers and Russian speakers. When the army was ordered to shoot or to fight against demonstrators, those who were Russian speakers just defected, they just changed side. They just went to support the protesters and they became in fact those the famous \u2018little green men\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s main goal is the extermination of Palestinians \u2013 retired NATO colonel<\/p>\n
Keep in mind that Baud was working for NATO then. \u201cThere was absolutely not the slightest indication that Russia brought new troops to Crimea. Based on the status of force agreement signed between Russia and Ukraine, you had up to 25,000 Russian troops stationed in the Crimean peninsula. At that time they were not even 25,000, there were 22,000. A Ukrainian lawmaker on Ukrainian TV said that out of the 20,000 (sic) Ukrainian soldiers that were deployed in Crimea, 20,000 defected to the Russian-speaking side.\u201d
\nAs for \u201cRussian propaganda,\u201d it is a term bandied about quite easily by legacy media and NATO mouthpieces to taint reputations or lead to censorship of voices. The war backers are upset that their own \u201cRussia started it\u201d propaganda isn\u2019t working.
\nSanctions prevent Baud from even buying food
\nBaud lives in Brussels, and now as a result of the sanctions is unable to even buy food for himself. Nor can well-intending people do so on his behalf. In an interview on Dialogue Works at the end of December, 2025, Baud said:
\n\u201cYesterday, a friend of mine tried from Switzerland to buy food for me, to be delivered to my home (in Belgium). She could order, but the payment was blocked. Any delivery to my home is prohibited, even if the funds come from Switzerland.\u201d
\nPeople who are aware of his unjust situation have been physically bringing him food, to alleviate his inability to purchase it himself.
\nIn a more recent interview on Judging Freedom, Baud highlighted that his case was a foreign policy decision, denying him due process.
\n\u201cThis is not a decision that has been taken by any court. I was not judged by anybody. In fact I was not in front of a jury. I could not present my case. I could not defend my case. This decision was not taken by a court but by the council of the foreign ministers of the European union.\u201d
\nThe most he can do, Baud explained, is, \u201cgo to the European Court of Justice and try to make my case saying that the decision was not just, and the court of justice may then study the case and have an assessment on that.\u201d Even if the court concludes the sanctions are not justified, all it can then do is \u201cadvise the council of foreign ministers to change their mind.\u201d
\nGiven that the sanctions against Baud are punitive for his not toeing the line, it is unlikely minds will be changed.
\nA growing list of EU-sanctioned voices
\nJacques Baud isn\u2019t the first to be sanctioned by the EU. Many journalists and public figures have been sanctioned for their writings or words on the Donbass, Crimea, corruption in Ukraine, and so on. However, many have safety in Russia or elsewhere, and while their foreign bank accounts have been unjustly frozen, they can at least buy food and otherwise live normally.
\nA recent article in Forum Geopolitica notes the brazen illegality of these sanctions. \u201cIn contrast to Article 11 of its own charter, the EU has decided to punish, disenfranchise and expropriate the citizens of all countries without any offence having been committed, as was last seen in Nazi Germany.
\n\u201cThis elimination of dissidents is not ordered by a court, but by the \u2018Council of the European Union\u2019, the political arm of the EU. The Council, in which non-democratically elected apparatchiks lead a good life, is chaired by Kaja Kallas, herself not democratically elected. We are back in the Middle Ages.\u201d
\nFrench journalist Xavier Moreau was also sanctioned, and roughly half a year prior, Swiss-Cameroonian political activist Nathalie Yamb was targeted.
\nGerman journalist Huseyin Dogru was sanctioned in May 2025 for being a \u201cRussian disinformation actors, and for, according to him, \u201cpro-Palestine reporting and documenting the repression of activists in Germany + the EU.\u201d\u00a0
\nAs with the others sanctioned, no \u201cevidence\u201d of the EU\u2019s accusations was provided, particularly no proof of financial ties to Russia or Russian media.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Russia and US won\u2019t talk to EU\u2019s Kallas \u2013 Kremlin<\/p>\n
A petition demanding \u201cthe immediate lifting of the illegal sanctions against Jacques Baud as well as against all journalists, scholars, and EU citizens,\u201d rightly notes it is not a crime to name the true reasons for the Ukraine war.
\n\u201cIt is not a crime to draw readers\u2019 attention to untruths and to the EU\u2019s and NATO\u2019s own propaganda. It is not a crime to point out the thoughtless cooperation of the West with Ukrainian forces that show a dangerous proximity to fascists.\u201d
\nFurther noting the sanctions have targeted 59 journalists and scholars, it points out, the EU is \u201cusing the sanctions list as an instrument to silence critics and is maneuvering itself ever deeper into an abyss of lawlessness.\u201d
\nQuite amusingly, the president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen (also known as Ursula von der Lying), posted of\u00a0\u201cprotecting\u201d freedom of speech. The EU Commission website claims the right to freedom of expression, \u201calso means the freedom and pluralism of the media shall be respected.\u201d
\nThe sanctions are part of the broader desperate campaign of threatening and censoring voices that report truthfully on matters related to Ukraine, the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, and other timely topics. Yes, they can censor us by deleting our YouTube and social media platforms, or by imposing sanctions on journalists, authors, and other public figures.
\nBut, it doesn\u2019t work. Baud said he now has more visibility and more credibility. \u201cIt\u2019s always a bad idea when you start preventing someone to speak. This attracts more attention.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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