In this episode of Daniel Davis Deep Dive, I sit down with someone who is now at the center of one of the most alarming political actions I’ve seen in Europe in years: Col. Jacques Baud, former Swiss intelligence officer — and now an officially sanctioned “target” of the European Union.

What Baud describes is nothing short of extraordinary. On December 12, he learned from Radio Free Europe — not from any government — that his name was about to appear on an EU sanctions list. Three days later, without a single warning, phone call, letter, or legal proceeding, the sanctions were published. That was his only notification. Overnight, his bank accounts were frozen. His ability to travel inside the EU was revoked. He cannot even return to his own country.

And the accusation? That he is spreading “pro‑Russian propaganda” — including the claim that he promoted a conspiracy theory that Ukraine somehow orchestrated its own invasion. Baud forcefully rejects this, explaining that he merely quoted a 2019 statement by Oleksiy Arestovych, then a senior adviser to President Zelensky, warning that Ukraine’s NATO ambitions could trigger war. Quoting a Ukrainian official, he says, is now being treated as evidence of being a Russian agent.

What makes this case even more disturbing is what didn’t happen.
No charges.
No court.
No right to defense.
No due process of any kind.
Not from the EU. Not from Belgium. Not from Switzerland.

Baud stresses that he has no ties to Russia, has repeatedly refused invitations from Russian state media, and bases most of his analysis on Ukrainian and U.S. sources. Yet his work — careful, technical, and often uncomfortable for Western narratives — has been rebranded as “disinformation.”

In this conversation, he lays out how these sanctions have effectively confiscated his livelihood, leaving him unable to access his own money and now dependent on a possible humanitarian exemption just to buy food. More importantly, he argues that his case is a warning sign: that Europe is entering a phase where objective analysis of the Russia–Ukraine war is being criminalized, and where political decisions are replacing legal standards.

This is one of the most consequential interviews I’ve hosted — not because of what it says about Jacques Baud, but because of what it reveals about the state of free expression, democratic norms, and the boundaries of acceptable analysis in the West.

I encourage you to watch the full episode. What Baud describes has implications far beyond his personal situation, and it raises questions that every serious observer of this war — and of Western governance — needs to confront.