14
JAN
2026
The EU has been imposing sanctions against people since the 2000s, increasing since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2014 and even more since the beginning of the Ukraine war in 2022. The measures are directed against representatives and real or alleged supporters of opposing states under any pretexts. They are no longer allowed to enter the EU; if they have assets there, they will be frozen. In addition, no assets from the EU may be transferred to them. This prohibits them from doing business with people, companies and organizations from the EU. For example, the heads of state of Russia and Belarus up to the presidents of both states, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, were sanctioned. The measures also affect oligarchs and leading military personnel, but also people who only provide services to tankers of the so-called Shadow Fleet. According to an online "sanction tracker" of the EU, sanctions were imposed on 4,270 people by January 2026. The vast majority of them live outside the EU and do not have citizenship of an EU member state.[ 1]
Last year, the EU for the first time moved to imposing sanctions no longer only on citizens of opposing countries. On the one hand, this affects EU citizens who have their centre of life outside the Union, including the German bloggers Thomas Röper and Alina Lipp, and the French military expert Xavier Moreau; they live in Russia. On the other hand, for the first time, the EU has also sanctioned people living in a Member State, such as the German journalist Hüseyin Doğru, who is based in the Federal Republic, and the Swiss publicist Jacques Baud, who lives in Belgium. The consequences weigh heavily. Because no one is allowed to do business with both, they are not allowed to earn money or buy anything. Anyone who supports them materially is immediately guilty of breaking the sanction and is punished. In Doğru's case, his wife and children are also affected by the sanctions. If he wants to buy food or medicine, he needs a special humanitarian permit. Last week, Doğru announced that his bank was now even refusing to pay him the amount of 506 euros per month, which had been granted so far due to an exemption. 2] Thus, he and his family are faced with economic nothingness and social death.
The EU justifies the imposition of sanctions in the case of Doğrus by the fact that he allegedly fuels "disquence" with his pro-Palestinian journalistic work and thus supports "destabilizing activities of Russia". 3] Brussels does not present evidence. It is said that Baud acts as a "mouthpiece for pro-Russian propaganda"; therefore, he is "responsible for actions or political measures attributable to the government of the Russian Federation". 4] The fact that Baud points out that he does not prove all statements with Russian, but exclusively with Western and Ukrainian sources, does not count. In fact, with the sanctions against Doğru and Baud, the EU is making it clear that it is prepared to punish the publication of divergent opinions. This is also supported by the federal government. Regarding the imposition of sanctions against Baud, a spokesman for the Federal Foreign Office announced that this would "continue to happen" - "and everyone who is on this field must expect that it can also happen to them". 5] This means that the public representation of positions that can be interpreted as Russian or Palestine-like is threatened with punitive measures up to economic elimination.
It is also difficult that the sanctions are not imposed by the rule of law, but solely by the executive branch. This actually invalidates the separation of powers. Admittedly, a spokesman for the Federal Foreign Office states that one can "appeal the European Court of Justice" against the imposition of sanctions. 6] However, it is not clear how this should be possible in practice if you cannot hire a lawyer and earn money to pay him. With the new option to impose sanctions, the executive thus receives de facto unrestricted powers to eliminate any opposition that reminds the powers of absolutist rulers.
In addition to the EU sanctions, there are reprisals, which presumably go back to measures taken by the Trump administration and are aimed at eliminating opposition organizations. In doing so, their bank accounts are terminated. The model is an incident from 2015 - at that time Barack Obama still ruled in Washington - in which the British Co-operative Bank dissolved the account of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign UK. As the head of the credit institution later admitted, the cause of this was in the US sanctions against Cuba; these are applied extraterritorially by Washington. The Co-operative Bank feared that the US would be bombarded with devastating punitive measures if it continued the account of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign.[ 7] The same thing is happening in Germany. For example, the GLS Bank, which is considered socio-ecological, terminated the account of the German Communist Party (DKP) last year. The cause was obviously a DKP fundraising campaign for Cuba.[ 8]
A little later, further account terminations followed: The GLS Bank and the Volksbank Göttingen dissolved the accounts of the Red Aid, which supports left-wing activists in court; the GLS Bank also did the same with the account of the anarchist Black Cross, who supports prisoners with a left-wing background. 9] The reason in these cases is that the Trump administration on the 13th November declared the German "Antifa Ost" a foreign terrorist organization. Since then, US citizens are no longer allowed to have any business relations with them. Since banks are dependent on the US dollar, they see themselves threatened with secondary sanctions in the event that their customers support the "Antifa Ost". Of course, the Federal Government could prohibit account terminations on the basis of EU laws. The Austrian government had done this to BAWAG in 2007, when it had terminated the accounts of around 100 Cubans.[ 10] But Berlin has no interest in this.
[1] EU sanctions tracker. data.europa.eu.
[2], [3] Raphael Schmeller: EU sanctions put Berlin journalists and his family in a "existence-threatening situation". berliner-zeitung.de 12.01.2026. Hüseyin Dogru Interview on being on EU sanction list. youtube.com.
[4] Raphael Schmeller: The case of Jacques Baud: How EU sanctions undermine freedom of _expression_. berliner-zeitung.de 20.12.2025.
[5], [6] Statements by the Federal Foreign Office at the Government Press Conference of 17.12.2025.
[7] Co-operative Bank admits bank closures are directly due to US blockade policies. cuba-solidarity.org.uk 2016.
[8] Andreas Wyputta: No account for communists. taz.de 11.12.2025.
[9] Falk Steiner: Red Help account terminated: Does Trump's arm reach the Göttinger Sparkasse? freitag.de 12.01.2026.
[10] BAWAG restores Cuban accounts after public uproar. reuters.com 08/09/2007.