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State Department sanctions Europeans over 'tech censorship,' the EU sanctions Swiss, French officers over Russian propaganda and Russia ends defense agreements with Czechia, Germany

State Department sanctions Europeans over 'tech censorship,' the EU sanctions Swiss, French officers over Russian propaganda and Russia ends defense agreements with Czechia, Germany

It's the zwischen den Jahren, the week between years, where not much gets done but we allow ourselves around the world a chance to rest, recover and be with friends and family, assuming we are fortunate enough to have the possibility. Even under Russian bombardment, Ukrainians in Kyiv and elsewhere came out in folkloric tradition for Christmas parades as the air raids sounded, according to video captured by The Associated Press. 

By contrast, the German-speaking world likes to pat itself on the back for marching for "peace" on Easter Monday. These have grown ritualistic, if not more than a bit hard lefty. A tradition that began in the 1960s fades with the community of boomers as the word "peace" itself has lost most all meaning in the German-speaking world. 

The first time I attended an Easter Monday march was just after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Much like the current formulations of the peace movement – peace through dominance, collusion with autocrats, denial of basic fundamental rights in a free society and raw prejudice – we have to ask, are these things compatible with "peace"? Increasingly, we will be even less kind to the language as the flexible limits of peace through dominance become apparent.

It is not enough to wish for peace or even work for it; it is a bit better to recognize no one cares about feelings, unless powerful enough that one has to care. This is the "peace through strength" being advertised by Washington these days. But we have arrived on its natural limits. Loyalists in Congress like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Elise Stefanik and Cynthia Loomis bow out, Indiana legislators defy orders from on top regarding redistricting and Thomas Massie continues to project the purest Russia signal there is by teaming up with California Silicon Valley Democrat Ro Khanna to #ReleaseTheFiles. Those who underestimate the destruction of the slow drip of the Epstein scandal have not been in America lately.

The new year remains dynamic, the possibility for change great and small as the US faces mid-term elections, always a referendum on the party in power and the economy, Ukraine makes decisive choices in dire circumstances about its survival as a free and independent nation and the rest of Europe too must decide whether it can ward off the cold now that America has sneezed, developed a phlegmatic cough and manifests other signs of degeneracy at varying speeds. 

Happy new year. The year to come will be full of surprises, a détente may manifest, cosmic synchronicity may lead to a less than harmonic convergence on Europe's eastern front and feelings of intuition, desire and reflection may or may not align. A new 365-day cycle of some kind of vibrations awaits. Happy new year.

Welcome to the new Alpine Security Monitor! You can subscribe (and become a paid subscriber!) for weekly updates on security and geopolitics as it concerns the Alpine region, namely Austria, Czechia, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland (ok, little Liechtenstein and Monaco too when merited). If this was forwarded to you, welcome!

WASHINGTON, DC – US State Department sanctions Europeans over tech 'censorship'

  • CNN reports Tuesday that the US State Department "imposed visa sanctions on a former top European Union official", Frenchman Thierry Breton, as well as "employees of organizations that combat disinformation for alleged censorship".
  • Breton is "a former European commissioner involved in the Digital Services Act (DSA), a sweeping EU law that requires Big Tech platforms to take meaningful steps to reduce illegal and harmful content."
  • Also targeted: Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg of the German organization HateAid as well as Imran Ahmed of the Center for Countering Digital Hate and Clare Melford of the Global Disinformation Index.

 

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – Ex-Swiss and French officers sanctioned over Russian propaganda

  • Swissinfo reports last Friday that "A former Swiss Army officer is on the new European Union sanctions list against Russia-related companies and individuals," a list that came down earlier in the week on December 15 which also includes former French military officer turned Stratpol website founder Xavier Moreau, according to the Official Journal of the European Union Council decision.
  • In the European Council decision, "70-year-old Jacques Baud, a retired colonel and former strategic analyst specializing in intelligence and counterterrorism," is named alongside other figures like American John Mark Dugan, a former Florida deputy sheriff "who fled to Russia in 2016" and is "publicly accused of participating in pro-Kremlin digital information operations from Moscow", alongside other Russian figures associated with the GRU Unit 29155, the Valdai discussion club, the Moscow State Institute of International Relations known as MGIMO, Moscow's Higher Economics School and the Russia International Affairs Council (RIAC).
  • Individuals sanctioned by the EU "will not be allowed to travel within EU countries" and "assets in the Eurozone will be frozen." On Tuesday, Swissinfo reports "Jacques Baud is to appeal" against the EU's sanctions against him.

 

MOSCOW, RUSSIA – Defense agreements with Czechia, Germany terminated; ambassador recalled

  • Radio Prague International, citing Russian-state run Tass last Friday, reports Saturday that "Russia is set to terminate a number of military cooperation agreements signed with foreign countries," including Czechia and Germany as well as Poland and the United Kingdom. On Tuesday, Radio Prague International reports the long-serving ambassador, Alexander Zmejevsky, who had been at post since 2016 was recalled and replaced by Anna Ponomaryova, who "has worked at the Russian Embassy in Prague for several years."
  • The cooperation agreement with Czechia was inked by the two nations defense ministries on April 16, 2012.  
  • While neither Tass nor the Russian government provided explanations, "The Czech Foreign Ministry continues to list the 2012 defence cooperation agreement among treaties formally in force between Prague and Moscow."

 

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – Macron plans to build new aircraft carrier by 2038

  • Deutsche Welle reports Sunday that French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans "to build a new aircraft carrier" during a visit to a French military base in Abu Dhabi.
  • The new aircraft carrier would replace the Charles de Gaulle "which is expected to retire by 2038." Paris wants "to enhance its projection as a maritime power."
  • Estimated costs are €10.25 billion ($12 billion) and will "house some 30 fighter jets and 2,000 crew members". At 310 meters (1,007 feet) and 85 meters (279 feet) wide, it is "far larger than the Charles de Gaulle carrier."

 

BERLIN, GERMANY – Syrian intelligence officer charged over murder in Assad-era prison

  • Reuters reports Monday that "German prosecutors have charged a suspected former member of Syrian intelligence with crimes against humanity and the torture and murder of dozens of prisoners held in a Damascus prison under Bashar al-Assad".
  • The accused, identified only as Fahad A. according to strict German privacy laws, "was suspected of working as a a guard in a prison in the Syrian capital between the end of April 2011 and mid-April 2012" and "participated in well over 100 interrogations during which prisoners were subjected to sever physical abuse, such as shocks or beatings with cables". The result of such "catastrophic prison conditions" was at least 70 deaths.
  • Germany has made use of universal jurisdiction to indict "several people suspected of war crimes during the Syrian conflict".

 

KARLSRUHE, GERMANY – Switzerland extradites 'a suspected espionage agent'

  • Swissinfo reports Wednesday that Switzerland extradited an alleged spy to Karlsruhe, Germany, the seat of Germany's Federal Court of Justice, "more than seven months after his arrest" in the Swiss canton of Thurgau.
  • The alleged agent "was brought before the investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe." Earlier statements by the authorities indicate "the accused and two accomplices are said to have agreed to commit arson and explosive attacks on the transport of goods in Germany with several people allegedly commissioned by Russia." The two accomplices were taken into custody in Cologne and Constance.
  • Those accused are Ukrainian nationals who were paid to "work together to send parcels from Germany to recipients in Ukraine containing explosive or incendiary devices that would ignite during transport." During May, "test parcels" were sent with "GPS trackers, among other things" from Cologne.

 

BERN, SWITZERLAND – Initiative to sign UN nuclear arms ban treaty submitted

  • Swissinfo reports Tuesday "Citizens will decide whether Switzerland will join the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons" after "A citizens' committee submitted more than 135,000 signatures to the Federal Chancellery in Bern".
  • The UN anti-nuclear treaty came into effect in 2021 and while "Switzerland took part in the negotiation of the treaty, supported its adoption in 2017, and Parliament called on the government to accede to it in 2018," the "Federal Council is against Switzerland joining." All this drama despite the fact that "Switzerland does not possess nuclear weapons, has no intention of acquiring them and is not involved in nuclear deterrence".
  • Who supports the initiative: the Swiss Alliance for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and the Group for a Switzerland without an Army.

 

MILAN, ITALY – Police seize 1.4 tons of drugs, arrest 384 people

  • CNN reports Saturday Italian police said 384 were arrested and seized 1.4 tons of drugs in "a large-scale operation".
  • Police placed an additional 655 individuals under investigation, including 39 minors, in addition to confiscating 40 firearms and confiscating 35 kilos (77 pounds) of cocaine.
  • Authorities also cracked down on "so-called 'legal' cannabis," closing five shops in three cities and seizing 296 kilos (652.5 pounds) of cannabis products. In June, Italy banned the trade in "'cannibis light' or hemp".

 

And finally…

 

VADUZ, LIECHTENSTEIN – Four members of one family found dead

  • Reuters and Swissinfo report Thursday that four members of one family from Liechtenstein were found dead.
  • On Wednesday, police recovered the body of a 41-year-old man, who "turned out to be a senior employee of the munipality of Triesen," on the Swiss side of the bank of the Rhine River in the town of Sevelen in the canton of St. Gallen beside Vaduz. He had been suspended "due to irregularities in the accounts" he managed a few days prior.
  • Later, police found the bodies of one 73-year-old man and two women aged 68 and 45 in an apartment in Vaduz who turned out to be "the municipality worker's parents and sister," according to police.

 

Stay safe and week between the years and happy new year!

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