Tag: eu

No Theft of Russian Sovereign Assets: Belgium & Orbán Stop the EU’s Legal Madness

While Brussels was preparing yet another moralistic coup against reality, Belgium pulled the emergency brake.

Against the will of Berlin, against the ideological intoxication of the European Commission, and against the growing temptation to trample international law in the name of “virtue,” the European Union has abandoned the outright seizure of Russian sovereign assets. Instead, it has opted for a €90 billion “joint loan” for Ukraine—a loan in name only, a gift in substance.

This is not a technical adjustment.
It is a political defeat for Germany, a strategic victory for Belgium, and a rare moment of lucidity in a Union drifting toward legal nihilism.

The German Plan Collapses

For months, Berlin pushed a dangerous idea: confiscate Russian sovereign assets frozen in Europe and rebrand the theft as “reparations.” The logic was crude, emotional, and legally suicidal. No court ruling. No peace treaty. No settlement. Just brute force dressed up as righteousness.

Germany wanted to force this plan through—on the back of others.

Why? Because Belgium holds the bomb.

The bulk of Russian assets are immobilized at Euroclear in Brussels. Which means that if Russia—or any future claimant—wins in court, Belgium alone would face catastrophic financial liability.

Belgium’s Moment of Truth

Prime Minister Bart De Wever asked a simple, devastating question:

If you want us to confiscate these assets, will you guarantee Belgium against all legal and financial consequences—without limit?

Silence.

The so-called “partners” demanded unlimited risk from Belgium, while refusing any unlimited guarantee in return.

That was the end of the fantasy.

No sovereign state—especially a small one—can accept infinite liability to satisfy Berlin’s moral exhibitionism. At that moment, the German plan collapsed.

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‘We are the free world now’ — Europe declares war on free speech in the US

“We are the free world now.” Those words from Raphael Glucksmann, a French socialist member of the European Parliament, captured the pearl-clutching outrage of Europeans after the Trump administration did what no prior administration has ever done — stand up to Europe to defend the freedom of speech.

This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio barred five figures closely associated with European censorship efforts from traveling to the U.S. This includes Thierry Breton, the former European Union commissioner responsible for digital policy.

In a post on X, Rubio declared that the U.S. “will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship” and will target “leading figures of the global censorship-industrial complex from entering the United States.”

Breton achieved infamy as one of the architects of the massive EU censorship system, which is now being globalized. Armed with the notorious Digital Service Act, Breton and others threatened American companies and officials that they would have to yield to European standards of free speech. After Breton learned that Musk was planning to interview Trump before the last presidential election, he even warned the X owner that he would be “monitored” and potentially subject to EU fines.

Socialist Glucksmann is now irate at “this scandalous sanction against Thierry Breton.”

“We are Europeans,” he declared. “We must defend our laws, our principles, our interests.” In other words, this is a war over whether Europe or the U.S. Constitution will dictate the scope of free speech for American companies and citizens.

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The EU imposes a €3 fee per package: more control, more revenue, and more bureaucracy at the consumer’s expense

The European Union has decided to impose a flat fee of 3 euros on small packages sent within the bloc, a measure that will come into force next year and will directly affect millions of consumers and small businesses. Under the pretext of strengthening tax collection and ensuring resources for Member States, Brussels is taking yet another step in its policy of growing control over trade and the daily lives of citizens.

According to European lawmakers, the measure aims to curb the boom in low-value online commerce, especially frequent purchases of inexpensive products. However, in practice, the fee punishes everyday consumption, makes basic goods more expensive, and reinforces the European bureaucratic apparatus, which needs to justify its constant expansion with new sources of revenue.

The fee will apply to shipments whose value does not exceed a threshold set by each country, affecting both domestic and imported products. Brussels insists that the goal is to ensure “tax fairness,” but the outcome is clear: every package will be registered, monitored, and taxed, expanding state oversight and the administrative burden on citizens and businesses.

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Western intelligence lawfare op plotted illegal sting on EU fraud office, leaks reveal

After The Grayzone exposed CIJA – the Western gov’t-funded regime change outfit – for collaborating with al-Qaeda and its allies in Syria, files show the group sought to penetrate and “intimidate” European financial regulators who charged them with corruption.

Leaked documents reviewed by The Grayzone reveal the intelligence-linked Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) launched a malicious effort to infiltrate and subvert the European Commission and EU anti-fraud office after it accused them of corruption. In order to carry out these attacks, its director solicited the services of at least one longtime MI6 operative, Ian Baharie.

The group, which came to prominence in the early stages of the Western-backed dirty war on Syria, describes itself as a “non-governmental organisation dedicated to collecting evidence… for the express purpose of furthering criminal justice efforts” across the world.” CIJA’s work in gathering supposed evidence of the abuses of the Syrian government of deposed President Bashar Al-Assad earned it gushing praise from Hillary Clinton and puff profiles from The New Yorker, New York Times and The Guardian.

As The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal revealed in a 2019 profile on CIJA – one of the first critical investigative reports on a group touted by mainstream media as “independent” – one of the NGO’s top funders was the US State Department, which granted it over $500,000 in a short period. Today, CIJA boasts that it “currently works to support prosecutions in 16 countries” and is “assisting 52 law enforcement and counter-terrorism agencies and 14 prosecutorial offices globally.” 

Unmentioned there, and entirely ignored by English-language legacy media outlets, is the fact that the European Union’s Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) placed CIJA on an EU blacklist as punishment for unethical activities including cooking accounting books, forging documents, and graft. The group has been on EU regulators’ radar since at least 2015, when OLAF conducted a raid of CIJA’s registered headquarters only to find no trace of the organization actually operating there.

Now, leaked documents and emails reviewed by The Grayzone indicate CIJA’s founder and executive director William “Bill” Wiley undertook a retaliatory campaign of dirty tricks aimed at removing his organization from the EU blacklist. His grand scheme included a ruthless sting operation on a former staffer he accused of whistleblowing, as well as plans to gather dirt on OLAF officials which European Commission officials would be “intimidated by.” 

With a career skirting the line between the world of NGOs, multinational corporations and Western intelligence, Wiley sought out a veteran British MI6 operative to assist his dirty tricks campaign. Though CIJA promotes universal jurisdiction for purported crimes committed by rogue foreign governments, the leaked files show the group is more than willing to circumvent the law to advance its own objectives.

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Soviet Europe? Trump BANS Euro Officials From U.S. in Free-speech War

My, how the worm has turned. It was in 2009 that talk-show giant Michael Savage, along with others, was banned from Britain for exercising speech. Now, 16 years later, certain European officials are being banned from the United States for banning people for exercising speech. It’s just the latest in an unprecedented development: a war over liberty between an increasingly authoritarian Europe and a U.S. that under Donald Trump’s administration is championing Americanism.

At issue, too, isn’t merely certain European countries closing their borders to a few Americans. Nor is the problem just that European Union (EU) nations suppress their own citizens’ tongues via tendentious “hate speech”-law application. It’s also that, reflecting China’s efforts to censor the U.S.’s movies, the EU’s online restrictions could suppress Americans’ online expression. This is because Big Tech companies often apply EU-compliant changes worldwide.

Not Your Father’s Europe

Interestingly, shortly before this story broke I published the article “Should We Be Defending Left-wing Europe From Right-wing Russia?” In it, I explained how Western Europe is becoming a sort of woke, morally weak USSR. Others are noticing this as well, too. As Tampa Free Press writes, reporting on the current story:

A simmering diplomatic feud between Washington and Brussels over online speech regulations boiled over on Wednesday after the Trump administration barred five prominent European figures from entering the United States. The State Department accused the group — which includes a former top EU official and several NGO leaders — of leading efforts to censor American viewpoints.

The move marks a significant escalation in the administration’s campaign against what it views as “extraterritorial censorship” by foreign entities.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the restrictions on Tuesday, citing a policy unveiled in May that targets foreign nationals believed to be coercing U.S. technology companies into suppressing protected speech. Rubio framed the decision as a necessary defense of American sovereignty against ideological pressure from abroad.

“For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints,” Rubio stated.

The banned individuals are:

  • Thierry Breton — ex-EU commissioner for internal markets. He helped devise the EU’s “Digital Services Act” (DSA), which censors social media. He also publicly warned social-media platforms about content.
  • Imran Ahmed — CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a misnamed propaganda outfit.
  • Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg — co-founders and leaders of German organization HateAid, another misnamed propaganda outfit.
  • Clare Melford — CEO of the misnamed Global Disinformation Index, a U.K.-based nonprofit that rates media sites, unfairly. It seeks to alienate advertisers from, among others, Truth-oriented outlets. For instance, all of its 10 “riskiest” U.S. sites are conservative/libertarian.

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Europe’s Elites Pay For The Privilege Of Losing Conflict

When in doubt, Europeans should always re-read Tacitus. As a true Roman, he considered that sacrifice was only worthy if conducted at the service of the motherland. In his time, the Roman Empire. In our time, that would be civilization-state Italy.

Tacitus was a keen student of Resistance – reflecting on the worthiness of the heroic deaths of those condemned to suicide by Nero and Domitian. He followed all the legal battles, the condemnation of lay martyrs such as Seneca. He talks about them with veneration; but branded their sacrifice as sterile.

Tacitus refused the temptation of heroism – and asked himself if between the ardor of disdain and vile obsequiousness a path could be found exempt from vaingloriousness.

He certainly didn’t see this path in the future of Rome. He experienced life under absolute power – today that would be under the yoke of the European Union (EU) and European Commission (EC) – and noted that to exercise it or be submitted by it was equally degrading.

The questions he could not answer are eternal. Whether a people protagonist of History and enjoying domination is able to be worthy of it; whether it’s possible for those who govern to remain wise; and for those who are subjects, what to do to not humiliate themselves.

To History and politics, Tacitus posed only moral questions. For him, the only possible salvation will come via moral healing.

He quoted some verses of brilliant poet Lucan, who was also a victim of Nero – who wrote that considering “the most serious calamities” one “had proof that not towards our security are the gods solicitous, but of our punishment”.

All these questions apply now to Europeans being subjugated by appallingly mediocre warmongering elites – who are only speeding up a negative vortex way more serious than the decadence of Rome. While “the Gods” are Olympically oblivious of the punishment inflicted on mere – taxpaying – mortals.

Throwing Money Into a Black Void

Enter the latest European elite scam: the decision to hand over to the “criminal organization” in Kiev – President Putin’s terminology – a cool 90 billion euros joint loan for 2026-2027, at 0% interest rate. Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic officially refused to be part of the scam.

This joint EU borrowing – funds that they don’t have in the first place – automatically turns into EU debt. The onus will be on EU-wide taxpayers. Not only they will be stripped of 90 billion euros of their hard earned income coupled with high taxes; they will pay European banks for the “privilege”. Everyone in the corridors of the EC in Brussels knows that only in interest, EU member-states will have to pay over 3 billion euros a year.

The imperative corollary: funds for health services, education and social rights will go even more down the drain than at present.

It’s key to be reminded that this sweet loan will only cover two years to keep the Kiev gang on life support. Afterwards, it will be yet another scam. And even the sweet loan won’t be enough for 2026-2027 – covering only two-thirds of the black hole in Kiev.

The conditions for the loan are mind-boggling. Kiev will repay it if – and the operative word is an impossible “if” – receives “full reparations” from Russia. The EC in Brussels has stipulated the total amount at over half a trillion euros.

It gets even juicier. Before the loan, the EC had previously declared Ukraine insolvent; and announced that it could not provide loans to Kiev. Still, they forced themselves to come up with this latest sweet loan: direct financing, a de facto grant.

According to Ukraine’s lead negotiator Rustem Umerov:

“there are two scenarios: 1 – if the conflict ends, the funds will go toward rebuilding the country; 2 – if aggression continues, Ukraine expects €40–45 billion annually for defense and security.”

Both scenarios are absurd. First: Moscow – as the victor in the conflict – will never agree to finance the rebuilding of Ukraine via its own sovereing wealth fund stolen by Europeans. Second: the Kiev gang is already positioning itself to be showered with more free money, as in “if aggression continues…”

This whole circus is in progress because the EU failed to steal the Russian sovereign wealth funds for good – no matter the tsunami of spin speculating on who finally “betrayed” who (arguably France’s Le Petit Roi dumped the German BlackRock chancellor at the final stage of the negotiations).

What matters in the end is that a few economists with an IQ above a Brussels room temperature warned their “leaders” that if the “robbery” (Putin’s terminology) of Russia would go on, nations holding sovereign wealth funds – from Asia to the Persian Gulf – would always regard them not as savings but as high risk investments, with catastrophic consequences.

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EU Threatens Retaliation Against U.S. After Ex-Censorship Tsar Breton Sanctioned

The unelected European Commission and French President Emmanuel Macron expressed indignation and vowed retaliation on Wednesday over the Trump administration’s sanctions on “leading figures of the global censorship-industrial complex”, including former EU censorship tsar Thierry Breton.

On Tuesday evening, the U.S. State Department said that it would sanction five Europeans and bar them from travelling to the United States for their role in censoring Americans and American firms.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement: “For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.”

Among those listed in the first round of sanctions was British citizen Imran Ahmed, the founder and CEO of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which has waged Sleeping Giants-style censorship campaigns against American news outlets, including Breitbart News. The State Department also listed Global Disinformation Index (GDI) chief Clare Melford, Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon of Germany’s HateAid, and former EU censorship tsar Thierry Breton.

U.S. Undersecretary of State Sarah B. Rogers described Breton as the “mastermind” behind the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which demands that social media firms censor so-called “hate speech” or “disinformation” or face fines of up to six per cent of their global revenue or even a suspension from being able to operate within the 27-nation bloc.

Breton infamously intervened during the 2024 U.S. presidential election, demanding that X boss Elon Musk abide by the EU’s speech restrictions during a live interview with then-candidate Donald Trump. The French politician said that the interview must include “mitigation measures” to prevent the “amplification of harmful content” that may “generate detrimental effects on civic discourse and public security” in the EU.

While Breton resigned months later over a dispute with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, the censorship rules he spearheaded remain a major force in punishing American companies, most recently fining X €120 million earlier this month for alleged violations of transparency regulations.

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EU state denies entry to Russian athletes

Latvia has denied entry to Russian athletes ahead of a crucial Luge World Cup stage hosted by the EU country, its foreign minister, Baiba Braze, has announced.

Like its Baltic neighbors Lithuania and Estonia, Latvia has been one of the staunchest opponents of Moscow since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, calling for more military aid to Kiev and increasingly harsh sanctions on Russia. Riga has provided almost $1 billion in assistance to the government of Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky since February 2022.

On January 3 and 4, the Latvian town of Sigulda hosts the fourth stage of the Luge World Cup. The points scored in the event are essential for athletes to qualify for the Winter Olympics in Italy’s Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in February 2026.

Braze wrote in a post on X on Wednesday that Russian lugers “are not welcome in Latvia.”

“I have decided to include 14 Russian Federation citizens on the persona non grata list,” she said.

According to the foreign minister, the entry ban, introduced in line with the country’s immigration legislation, is indefinite.

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Trump State Department Bars EU-Linked Globalists from Entry for Pushing Anti-Free Speech Censorship

The US Department of State, under the direction of Marco Rubio, has taken a rare and decisive step against European political figures accused of acting against American interests, barring several prominent individuals who’ve sought to censor free and open dialogue on American platforms.

The bold move signals a sharp and definitive break from years of deference—and even subservience—to Brussels’ ever-increasing, draconian regulatory ambitions.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio rightly framed the action as a defense of American free speech against what he described as organized, ideological pressure from abroad. He made it crystal clear that the era of tolerating overseas attempts to silence U.S. voices and American positions is over.

In a post on X, Rubio Wrote: “For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.

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Swiss Authorities Silent As EU Sanctions One Of World’s Most Respected Military Analysts

When German journalists Röper and Lipp were sanctioned, no one in Switzerland reacted—now one of the world’s most respected military analysts is being sanctioned—a Swiss citizen. Weltwoche is waking up, Switzerland is fast asleep.

Introduction

Terrorizing journalists with sanctions in order to suppress the truth is nothing new for the EU.

On May 20, 2025, the EU sanctioned two German journalists for the first time—Alina Lipp and Thomas Röper. At the time, we reported in detail on this case, “EU sanctions German journalists,” and also analyzed the case from a legal perspective.

The result was clear: punishment without crime or trial, disenfranchisement and expropriation without a hearing.

The EU is dangerously close to the Nazi regime of 1936, when Thomas Mann was expatriated.

Following the same pattern, action is now being taken against a Swiss citizen for the first time.

Jacques Baud – You Can’t Be More Objective Than He Is

Jacques Baud is one of the most objective and respected military analysts around. He is highly regarded and respected not only throughout Europe, but also in the US.

His work is not limited to analysis on the most prestigious YouTube platforms; he has also written numerous excellent books. His style is unique in that he does not concern himself with politics, but only with the analysis of warfare, in a calm and dispassionate manner. His analyses have never been anti-Ukrainian or pro-Russian, but objective.

He has long seen a NATO defeat on the horizon, not based on his wishes, but on the facts on the long front and the war strategy and tactics of the various parties.

This did not fit in at all with the Russophobic war cries of the EU, which still dreams of ultimate victory today, just like Adolf Hitler did in the spring of 1945.

The latest example comes from Friedrich Merz, whose lucidity must now seriously be called into question. To justify the theft of Russian assets, he said the following before the German Bundestag on December 15, 2025:

“To be very clear and very explicit here: we are not doing this to prolong the war. On the contrary, we are doing this to end this war as quickly as possible, ladies and gentlemen. Because this sends a clear signal to Moscow that continuing this war is pointless for Moscow.”

Friedrich Merz, December 15, 2025

Jacques Baud’s crime was therefore that his analyses were correct – no more and no less.

Die Weltwoche Stands up— Finally

When Alina Lipp and Thomas Röper were sanctioned, Weltwoche contented itself with an indifferent, lukewarm article and did not stand up for its colleagues – we were shocked.

It seems that the opportunistic Mr. Köppel has felt the heat from Ms. Kaja Kallas a little too closely for his liking: Köppel is finally standing up, because he could be next, and, as Martin Niemöller said, when it’s your turn, you’re wide awake.

“First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

Holocaust Memorial Day Trust

Now Weltwoche is also reflecting on the lack of a fair hearing and politically motivated persecution, not in as much detail as in our article of May 25, 2025, but still.

“Opportunism is costing a 70-year-old military analyst his quality of life”

Weltwoche has published half a dozen articles on Jacque Baud, and Köppel is playing the Joan of Arc of journalists, styling himself in his own way as the Winkelried of his guild. It’s rather late in the day. Had Köppel reacted with the same force in May, the men and women in Brussels would probably have thought twice about sanctioning a Swiss citizen. Opportunism is costing a 70-year-old military analyst his quality of life.

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