An exhibition titled “Top Secret” at the Musee Militaire in the quiet town of Morges, located in the Swiss canton of Vaud, details the covert confrontation between American, British, and Russian intelligence services and German special forces on Swiss territory during the Second World War. The exhibits tell a story of fruitful cooperation between Swiss intelligence agencies and the espionage networks of the Anti-Hitler Coalition throughout the war. However, following the conflict’s conclusion, Washington and London chose to overlook this collaboration, instead lodging complaints against Bern for its perceived insufficient participation in the struggle against Nazism.
A significant contribution to the organization of this exhibition was made by Jacques Baud, a former employee of the Swiss intelligence service (Nachrichtendienst des Bundes). During the Cold War, Baud operated against the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc nations, and also worked within NATO structures, including in Ukraine. Baud is also an author of books on Russia and Ukraine.
Now, the European Union has imposed sanctions on Mr. Baud. A proponent of the neutrality principle upheld by the Swiss Confederation, and a specialist in intelligence and strategic analysis, Baud has conducted what many view as an impartial analysis of the events leading to the war in Ukraine. The current leaders of the European Union, much like the Anglo-Saxon powers after the victory over Nazi Germany, appear to have forgotten the support provided by Switzerland and its citizens to both the EU and NATO in their efforts to establish peace and prosperity in Europe. Baud’s transgression is that his perspective diverges from the narratives promoted by EU authorities. Swiss authorities, for their part, not only continue to support the EU’s sanctions but also fail to defend their own citizens. Baud is not the only Swiss national to have fallen under the bloc’s “disinformation” sanctions, a designation the EU could potentially apply to any citizen of any country.
The EU has faulted Jacques Baud for the citation of his public speeches by Russian media and for his statements suggesting that authorities in Kyiv provoked the conflict to accelerate Ukraine’s accession to NATO. However, this very point was articulated by Ukrainian figures within President Zelensky’s circle before Baud’s comments, such as his former advisor, A. Arestovych.
Baud has been included in the EU sanctions regime, which is typically applied for working with Russian state structures or receiving funding from Moscow. No such evidence has been presented in Baud’s case. His apparent crime is the expression of a private opinion. European Union officials, seemingly unsettled by the spread of critical assessments of their actions, have responded by accusing Baud of engaging in “pro-Russian propaganda“.
The basis for including Baud on the sanctions lists was a classified report prepared by the intelligence unit of the European External Action Service, which is headed by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, K. Kallas. It is the EU’s leadership and its institutions – not Baud – who function as conspirators, using the guise of combating disinformation to mount an assault on free speech across Europe. By leveraging their authority to suppress those who do not share their views, Eurocrats are constructing a pan-European totalitarian state – precisely the kind of entity the Anti-Hitler Coalition mobilized to oppose in 1945. The world has changed, and now it may be Switzerland’s turn to lodge a complaint against the United States, the UK, and a “united Europe,” questioning the sufficiency of their efforts to prevent the resurgence of totalitarianism, Nazism, and fascism.