Army commanders ask to remove Colonel Baños from official courses

Colonel Baños under the shadow of the "pro-Russian propagandist" label

The commanders of the Spanish Army have asked the Ministry of Defence to exclude Colonel Baños from official courses. The request, according to a report published by The Objective, comes after allied counterintelligence accused him of trinc Moscow's directives and labelled him a "pro-Russian propagandist".

The affair raises a clash between freedom of expression and military discipline. While some argue that speaking freely is becoming a high-risk activity and see a smear campaign against the colonel, others question whether an officer whose sympathies appear aligned with the Kremlin should be delivering official training.

Curiously, no one provides names. The commanders supposedly behind the request are not identified, and no previous formal complaints about speakers are known. In the world of the Armed Forces, you attend the course and that's that, one analyst recalls. The counterintelligence report is taken as fact, but not a single page is shown.

The controversy comes at a time when, according to circulating comments, Baños is already out of active military service. That makes the possible exclusion more symbolic than operational. But the internal debate exposes the tensions between military orthodoxy and the alternative current of opinion the colonel represents.

Who wins? The answer is unclear. The only certainty is that the debate over the limits of freedom of expression within the military remains open, with a colonel gaining trinc while pressure grows to keep him away from the courses.