The European Union is trying to eliminate sources of information that do not confirm with its official interpretation of real world events.
One of the latest persons hit with official EU restrictions is the former Swiss intelligence official and author Jacques Baud:
Jacques Baud is a former colonel of the General Staff, ex-member of the Swiss strategic intelligence, specialist on Eastern countries. He was trained in the American and British intelligence services. He has served as Policy Chief for United Nations Peace Operations. As a UN expert on rule of law and security institutions, he designed and led the first multidimensional UN intelligence unit in the Sudan. He has worked for the African Union and was for 5 years responsible for the fight, at NATO, against the proliferation of small arms. He was involved in discussions with the highest Russian military and intelligence officials just after the fall of the USSR. Within NATO, he followed the 2014 Ukrainian crisis and later participated in programs to assist the Ukraine. He is the author of several books on intelligence, war and terrorism, in particular Le Détournement published by SIGEST, Gouverner par les fake news, L’affaire Navalny, and many other books.
I have quoted Baud in several of my pieces on Ukraine and have linked to his writings in the magazine Postil.
Several Youtube channels like Glenn Diesen, Daniel Davis and Nima Alkhorshid’s Dialog Works have regular discussions with him. The latest one, by Dialog Works, was published (vid) just seven days ago.
I have bought and read one of Baud’s books, The Russian art of war – How the West led Ukraine to defeat and can highly recommend it.
Baud is not writing fantasies. There are footnotes on nearly every page of his books with links to the sources. His analyses are objective and well founded.
That of course does not sit well with a EU officialdom that is living in a fantasy world where Russia is so weak that its economy will crash the next month and so strong that it will conquer Europe by next summer. Such Russophrenia is used for a power grab by technocrats and the dismantling of the last traces of democracy in Europe.
This is one of the outcomes:
Alfred de Zayas @Alfreddezayas – 12:24 utc · Dec 14, 2025
We are witnessing a civilizational collapse with the EU sanctioning Jacques Baud, a retired Swiss colonel and intelligence officer, for publishing books and articles expressing views on the Ukraine war contrary to those of the NATO leadership.
I had difficulties to believe that the EU would be stupid enough to hit out at one rather prominent expert that is criticizing it. A search of English news items came up with only one item by the U.S. propaganda outlet RFERL:
Brussels Adds New Names To Blacklist In Latest Russia Sanctions Package, Dec 10 2025
European Union ambassadors on December 10 decided on further sanctions against Russia, with a new package adding several individuals and entities to its sprawling blacklist adopted in response to the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago.
While not a sweeping sanctions package involving sectoral restrictive measures hitting Moscow as in the past, the new measures focus on five individuals involved in the global oil business in an attempt to hit Russia as it trades below the G7-imposed oil price cap that currently stands at $47.60 per barrel.
…
EU ambassadors also agreed to target people who they believe have carried out destabilizing activities on behalf of Russia around the globe.
…
A former colonel in the Swiss Army, Jacques Baud, is also listed for acting “as a mouthpiece for pro-Russian propaganda and making conspiracy theories, for example accusing Ukraine of orchestrating its own invasion in order to join NATO.” Former French military officer Xavier Moreau is listed for similar actions.
The Swiss French language outlet 24heures reported on Saturday (edited machine translation):
According to the website of Radio Free Europe, which has revealed the information on Wednesday, the name of Jacques Baud, 70 years, is expected to appear Monday on a list of European sanctions aimed at “private citizens involved in disruptive activities against the EU and the partner states”.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, this former colonel and officer of the intelligence Service of the Swiss Confederation had been noticed by countless interventions in the media. In essence, he accuses the West to manipulate and betray Ukraine for war with Russia – a war that it deems in advance lost by Kiev and its allies. According to the EU, it would acknowledge also the Ukraine to have “orchestrated his own invasion in order to be able to join NATO”.
Having read a lot of Baud’s pieces about the cause of the war in Ukraine and how it began I am not aware that he, at any time, accused “Ukraine of orchestrating its own invasion in order to join NATO”.
That idea though exists and goes back to the former advisor to the president of Ukraine Olexei Arestovich. He has argued that Ukraine must win a big war before it will be allowed into NATO:
It is too early to talk about Ukraine’s NATO membership now, but things will change after the nation wins the war, Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to the Ukrainian president’s administration, said in Vilnius on Thursday [, Sep 8 2022].
“If we win the war, it’s going to be a completely different situation; now the issue of NATO is a little (premature),” he said when asked if he expects Ukraine to be invited to join the Alliance at its planned summit in the Lithuanian capital in June 2023.
I have also seen a pre-war video clip, which I now fail to find, Here is the video clip from March 2019 in which Arestovich made a similar claim: ‘first win a big war against Russia, then get invited to NATO’ “Of course a large scale war with Russia and joining NATO as result of defeat of Russia. The coolest thing.” The clip is from an interview (in Ukrainian) with Svetlana Sheremetyeva of the Ukrainian magazine Apostrophe:
A full-fledged war with Russia will begin in a couple of years-Alexey Arestovich – Apostrophe, Mar 18 2019
Baud though has, to my best knowledge, never endorsed that view. [updated Dec 16, 7:45utc, 9:15utc]
More from 24heures:
The decision of Brussels, however, is not yet official, and the spokesperson of the European Council has not confirmed on Friday. Especially because of the comments on this issue could allow people referred to “move their assets” before the entry into force of the measures, on 15 December.
Contacted this Friday, James Baud indicates that you will not be aware of these possible sanctions. “This is interesting… I didn’t know, I haven’t been warned”, he explains.
The European sanctions aimed at the “heads of the destabilizing activities”, in which they propagandize for the benefit of Russia, have been introduced in October 2024. They provide for the freezing of assets of persons sanctioned, a prohibition of entry on the territory of the EU and the prohibition of making funds available to them.
These measures may affect Jacques Baud full force. Now retired, the Swiss man lives in Brussels and its main current publisher, Max Milo, is French. The sanctions prevent it in principle a touch of copyright in the EU. The Swiss, however, do not apply the EU measures on “destabilizing activities “.
The sanctions against Jacques Baud were published today and are now official. In Annex 57 the ‘Statement of Reasons’ claims:
Jacques Baud, a former Swiss army colonel and strategic analyst, is a regular guest on pro-Russian television and radio programmes. He acts as a mouthpiece for pro-Russian propaganda and makes conspiracy theories, for example accusing Ukraine of orchestrating its own invasion in order to join NATO.
Therefore, Jacques Baud is responsible for, implementing or supporting actions or policies attributable to the Government of the Russian Federation which undermine or threaten stability or security in a third country (Ukraine) by engaging in the use of information manipulation and interference.
The EU Council, in which the ambassadors of all EU countries voted on these sanctions, has made a very stupid mistake.
Sanctioning Baud guarantees that the Streisand effect will set in:
The Streisand effect describes a situation where an attempt to hide, remove, or censor information results in the unintended consequence of the effort instead increasing public awareness of the information.
Please let everyone know that Jacques Baud got sanctioned. Make people aware of his writing and thoughts. Urge them to watch his talks. Consider to support Baud by buying one of his books as a Christmas gift for yourself or someone dear to you.
It may just be a short time before the EU tries to confiscate and burn those.