From Democracy to Dystopia: Brussels’ Blacklist Hits Home

Account freezes, social and financial erasure, and political blacklisting, without trial or conviction. This is no longer the domain of distant authoritarian states but a growing feature of the European Union’s sanctions regime. Behind the rhetoric of liberal democracy, the EU has constructed a mechanism that can be turned inward, targeting its own citizens and residents while circumventing due process.

The recent inclusion of journalists, analysts, and political activists living in or closely associated with Europe on EU sanctions lists has sent shockwaves through independent media circles. These are not criminals convicted of wrongdoing, nor even individuals accused of breaking the law. They are people engaged in speech, journalism, and activism that remain entirely legal under European law, yet deemed politically inconvenient. The consequences are severe and immediate: frozen bank accounts, terminated services, financial isolation, and a sudden inability to function in everyday life.

At present, the EU’s sanctions list against Russia includes 59 individuals and 17 entities, which you can view here.

On December 21, 2025, more than 300 scholars, diplomats, journalists, and worried Swiss citizens urged Switzerland’s leading diplomat and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs to take diplomatic action with the European Union on behalf of their fellow citizens, Col. Jacques Baud and Nathalie Yamb. Their open letter is available here.

The following article, authored by Pascal Lottaz, an associate Professor for neutrality studies at Kyoto University’s Faculty of Law & Hakubi Centre, examines how the EU has constructed a system that is formally legal yet functionally authoritarian, exploiting foreign-policy powers to bypass domestic legal protections. Its most dangerous feature is its extralegal nature: a regime of coercion that requires no trial, no evidence, and no accountability.

What was designed to project power outward is now being turned inward, and the implications for free expression and the rule of law are profound.

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Pascal Lottaz write on Pascal’s Substack…

What Goes Around: The EU’s Extralegal Sanctions Regime

EU Sanctions against the bloc’s own citizens and residents are a horrible development toward a totalitarian future. Their extralegal nature is what gives them their force. An explanation attempt.

It has come as a shock to many of us in the alternative media sphere when, on December 15, the EU put the esteemed analyst, political commentator, and former Swiss Army colonel Jacques Baud, on its Russia-Sanctions list. He was one of several newly sanctioned individuals (alongside, for instance, the popular French journalist, Xavier Moreau). Baud is already the second Swiss to be sanctioned. In June 2025, the EU announced that Nathalie Yamb, a Swiss-Cameroonian activist against neocolonialism, would be sanctioned.

Being on the EU sanctions list is a devastating event for the people concerned, especially if they reside in an EU country or a closely associated state like Switzerland, Norway, or the UK. It means banks will freeze their accounts, credit companies will cancel their cards, they are not allowed to enter into contracts with EU-affiliated companies or private persons, and no business in the EU is allowed to have dealings with them, which, in theory, even precludes them from buying bread and other necessities of life. Furthermore, many international businesses will cancel all their services to them, including mail providers, social media platforms, etc. Even Swiss banks freeze or cancel accounts, out of fear they might get in trouble if they don’t comply with EU regulations. I recently interviewed two sanctioned people, Nathalie Yamb and Hüsseyin Dogru, and their testimonies are heartbreaking. For an equally harrowing account by Jacques Baud, see the most recent interview with him on Nima Alkhorshid’s ‘Dialogue Works’ channel. Nathalie also posted the short video below, in which she gives an overview of the ordeal (post in French, subtitles in English).

Pour tous ceux qui veulent savoir ce que ça signifie être placé sous sanctions de l’Union européenne et quels seront les impacts pour Jacques Baud ou Xavier Moreau, je partage d’expérience, puisque je suis la première suissesse sanctionnée (depuis le 26 juin 2025).

Pour Xavier,… pic.twitter.com/nzooxL0WsS

— Nathalie Yamb (@Nath_Yamb) December 16, 2025

Are Sanctions Against EU Citizens and Residents Illegal?

As of early January 2026, there were 59 private individuals on the EU’s Russia sanctions list. Originally, this tool was levied only against Russian businessmen and people living in Russia (which was already problematic in my view), but since 2024, the EU has begun using sanctions as a political sledgehammer to crack down on various forms of dissent. Yamb, for instance, was sanctioned mostly for her activism against France’s neocolonial behaviour in Africa, and Dogru for being a vocal German journalist for the Palestinian cause. The little text snippets that serve as justifications for the decision to include them in the sanctions list even mention those non-Russia-related activities for their listing.

Naturally, one would assume that in a free and liberal society, based on the rule of law, sanctions against citizens and residents must be illegal. Right? In fact, the EU parliamentarian Michael von der Schulenburg has commissioned a report that is very clear in its verdict. Sanctions, it holds, break existing EU law on individual freedoms (see my interview with him here).

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However, the problem we have is that while sanctions are doubtlessly a breach of some EU law, there is another EU law that allows the Council to take these measures. Procedurally, the EU is not in breach of its competences because sanctions are not a domestic policing matter but a foreign policy decision.

Foreign Policy, For Domestic Purposes

I will not go into the details of the accusations against the sanctioned individuals. That would be beside the point. Whether the reasons given for the sanctions have merit or not is not the issue. The problem everyone should understand is that the accusations don’t need to constitute illegal behaviour. There are no laws in the EU or its member states that forbid doing what the people on the Russia-Sanctions list have been doing. On the contrary. Many of the activities, including civil activism (Nathalie Yamb), journalism (Hüsseyin Dogru), or the publication of geopolitical analysis (Jacques Baud) are explicitly protected liberties.

That’s the point. Since the acts committed are not crimes, the sanctions against them are not judicial measures, either. The EU explicitly says so on its sanctions explainer homepage:

Restrictive measures or ‘sanctions’ are an essential tool of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy. They allow the EU to respond to global challenges (sic) and developments that go against its objectives and values.

Decisions on sanctions are taken by the Council of the European Union by unanimity.

EU sanctions are targeted and aim at those responsible for the policies or actions the EU wants to influence. They do not target a country or population.

Sanctions are not punitive (sic) and instead seek to bring about a change in the policy or conduct of those targeted, with a view to promoting the objectives of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy.

Great. Isn’t it?

The EU has managed to create a system under which the executive branch is within its legal rights, under its foreign policy arm to designate behavior of its citizens as “undesirable” and then impose the most draconian measures imaginable—all without trial or conviction. Everything Baud, Yamb, Dogru, and others did (and still do) is perfectly legal in the EU. But the Council of the European Union has the power to impose coercive measures on them to “encourage” a change of behavior. And because member states are treaty-bound to implement EU sanctions, there is no recourse to domestic courts for the victims.

What an accomplishment. The EU has sneakily outmanoeuvred the legal safeguards of its member states against arbitrary political persecution.

Continue reading this analysis here

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Source: https://21stcenturywire.com/2026/01/02/from-democracy-to-dystopia-brussels-blacklist-hits-home/