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The President's Daily Brief
November 12th, 2025: Where’s Putin? How Paranoid Vlad Is Hiding His Location & Bombings Rock India and Pakistan
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Plus a rift between Washington and London. The UK has halted parts of its intelligence cooperation with the US citing concerns that recent boat strikes in the Caribbean may have crossed the line. And in today's Back of the Brief, more stranded astronauts. China says its crew is stuck in orbit after space debris forced them to delay their return to Earth. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. A new investigation by Radio Free Europe's Russian investigative unit, known as systema, is giving us some insight into Russian President Putin and the air of paranoia that surrounds his regime. According to investigators, the Kremlin has built at least three nearly identical offices in different parts of the country, all designed to make it nearly impossible to tell where Putin actually is. It's like a grand game of Where's Wally? Now, these aren't just lookalike spaces with similar furniture. We're talking near perfect replicas, down to the grain of wood on his desk and the exact pattern of seams on the walls behind him. And according to analysts, they're used to disguise his true location during official meetings or TV appearances or pre recorded events. Radio Free Europe spent months reviewing hundreds of Kremlin released videos and photographs of Putin's appearances. That sounds like fun. Going back several years, they compared minute visual details, lighting and even reflections in the furniture. Putin's three primary workspaces are located at his official residence just outside Moscow, his seaside compound in Sochi, and a heavily guarded lakeside retreat roughly halfway between Moscow and St. Petersburg. All three offices are built to look identical. Same desk, same walls, same curtains, same furniture, same lava Lamps, same layout. The goal is to make every video of Putin look like it was shot in the same room, no matter where he really is. And according to this investigation, that's exactly what's been happening. Meetings the Kremlin claimed were held in Moscow were actually filmed in Sochi. And footage supposedly from Sochi was actually recorded hundreds of miles away at the lakeside retreat. And it also reflects a man and a system obsessed with secrecy and control. The project's findings line up with testimony from a former officer in Putin's personal security service, Gleb Karakulov, who defected in 2022. Karakulov told Western media that Putin is pathologically afraid for his life, so much so that he travels with a portable communications bunker, avoids planes when he can, and surrounds himself with layers of deception, including the fake offices. Now, you might ask, why go to all that trouble? Well, analysts point to two main reasons. First, of course, personal security. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has faced repeated drone strikes deep inside Russian territory, including near Moscow. As those threats increase, Putin's team appears determined to mask his movements and limit any chance of him becoming a target. Second, strategic deception. By manipulating where and when Putin appears to be, the Kremlin controls the narrative. It keeps adversaries guessing, conceals decision making timelines, and projects an image of constant stability, even if the reality behind the scenes is a bit more chaotic. In recent years, observers say Putin has spent increasing amounts of time at his lakeside residence, which has become a kind of a fortress. It is isolated, heavily defended, and surrounded by restricted airspace. Satellite imagery shows expanded air defense systems in the region, suggesting the Russian government has quietly hardened the site against possible attacks. The Kremlin, of course, denies that Putin is hiding, but it doesn't directly address the existence of these duplicate offices. Officials typically describe his location only after an event has already aired. Now, that's not unusual for a wartime leader, but in Putin's case, it fits a long standing pattern. This is a man who famously kept his distance even from his own ministers during the pandemic, seating them at tables the length of a bowling alley. He's known for moving around by armored train instead of aircraft. And now we know that he governs from a stage set that can be replicated from anywhere in the country. All right, coming up next, twin bombings in India and Pakistan threatened to reignite tensions between the nuclear neighbors. And Britain quietly pulls back intelligence sharing with Washington over US Strikes in the Caribbean. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here with an important message that could help your personal finances now let me ask you a question. Do you owe $10,000 or more in credit card debt or personal loans with credit card debt at all time highs? 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Welcome back to the PDB. The explosions happen less than 24 hours apart, one in Delhi, another in Islamabad. And just like that, South Asia's most combustible rivalry reawakened. Indian Prime Minister Modi vowed to, quote, hunt down those behind the Delhi blast, a fiery explosion that tore through rush hour traffic near the Red Fort metro station on Monday evening. The destruction left 13 people dead, more than 20 wounded, and the city reeling from its deadliest attack in over a decade. Police say a Hyundai sedan detonated while idling at a red light, triggering a chain of explosions that engulfed nearby vehicles and rickshaws in flames. The site, just steps from the 17th century Red Fort, where India's first prime minister declared independence in 1947, quickly became a scene of death and disbelief. Delhi police have now turned to enact India's main anti terror law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. That's a clear sign that authorities are treating the blast as an act of terrorism and not a tragic accident. Investigators in Delhi say The evidence trail started with the car's original owner, who was detained in a nearby suburb for questioning along with another man who had later bought the vehicle as authorities raced to untangle its claim of ownership. That search led them 20 miles south to Faridabad, where officers uncovered what they described as a, quote, transnational and interstate terror module. There, inside a rented home, investigators found nearly 3,400 pounds of explosives, timers, remote detonators and a rifle. You could consider all that a clue. That cache turned out to be just the start. Investigators soon traced the operation to two Kashmiri doctors now under arrest, both suspected of links to the Pakistan based terror group Jaish e Mohammed. CCTV footage, investigators say, shows one of the doctors driving the same Hyundai that went up in flames in Delhi. According to an Indian news outlet, that discovery fueled suspicions in New Delhi that the explosion may have foreign fingerprints. Still, officials stopped short of confirming any direct link between the arrested doctors and the terror attack. From Bhutan, where he was on an official visit, Modi said he had come with a heavy heart, adding that the terror attack, quote, deeply disturbed everyone. Yeah, that's a fair statement. He vowed that his government would, quote, get to the very bottom of this conspiracy. As investigators in Delhi began to comb through the wreckage, Pakistan was reeling from an explosion of its own. And of course, the cross border blame game began instantly. According to the BBC, within hours of the blast in Delhi, a suicide bomber struck outside a courthouse in Islamabad, killing 12 and injuring at least 30. The attacker reportedly waited near a police car before detonating his device. Prime Minister Sharif wasted no time accusing India of orchestrating the blast through, quote, terrorist proxies, calling it an act of state terrorism. New Delhi, of course, fired back, calling the accusations, quote, baseless and unfounded. Indian officials countered that Pakistan's security crisis is largely self inflicted, the result of escalating insurgent attacks and a broken relationship with the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. As for the responsibility for the Islamabad bombing, well, that remains murky. A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, known as the TTP initially claimed responsibility for the attack. However, the BBC reports that the TTP's leadership is denying involvement. The contradiction has only deepened confusion and suspicion across South Asia. For now, New Delhi and Islamabad are under pressure to rein in the rhetoric before this latest crisis spirals beyond control. Okay, shifting gears, the United Kingdom has stopped feeding intelligence to the US on suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean. It's a quiet but telling act of dissent over military strikes that London insists breach international law. The suspension, first reported by cnn, marks a Rare fracture in one of the world's closest intelligence partners. For years, the UK and US have worked side by side through what's known as the Joint Interagency Task Force South. That's a Florida based unit that tracks drug routes across Latin America and the Caribbean. British surveillance aircraft and naval crews, often operating out of its overseas territories across the Caribbean, have long been Washington's eyes and ears in the region, spotting drug smuggling boats, relaying coordinates, and helping the US Coast Guard move in for the arrest. But several sources told CNN that the intelligence sharing ended last month. London apparently grew uneasy after learning that some of the same intelligence once used for interdictions was now being folded into the ongoing American military campaign that's targeting drug vessels in the Caribbean. By Washington's own count, at least 76 suspected drug traffickers have been killed since the strikes began in September. The United nations top human rights official has called the US Operations a violation of international law. And that's a stance London shares. British officials concluded the campaign amounts to extrajudicial killings. As we've been tracking here on the pdb, these Caribbean operations were once US Coast Guard led law enforcement efforts. Suspects were detained, not targeted. That, of course, changed, as our regular listeners know, when the Trump administration reclassified several cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, invoking wartime authorities under the law of armed conflict. According to a memo sent to Congress, the White House has argued that drug traffickers pose an imminent threat to Americans and can therefore be treated as enemy combatants in what it calls a non international armed conflict. A classified Justice Department opinion reportedly backs that view. But legal experts counter that simply labeling a cartel a terrorist group doesn't automatically authorize lethal force under international law, even as the administration maintains that those targeted in the strikes aren't ordinary citizens at all, but rather cartel operatives waging a covert war against the US Inside Washington, the campaign has sparked its own internal rift. Admiral Alvin Hulsey, the commander of US Southern Command, reportedly offered to resign after questioning the legality of the strikes. That's a concern echoed by lawyers in the Department of War's Office of General Counsel. They've warned that the attacks may breach domestic and international law. And that dispute became more than academic. Halsey is now expected to step down in December, barely a year into his tenure. Canada, meanwhile, has quietly followed Britain's lead. While Ottawa says it will continue cooperating with the US Coast Guard, it's told Washington that Canada won't share any intelligence that could be used to select targets for strikes. Taken together, the moves by London and Ottawa Highlight how Washington's narco terrorism doctrine is forcing allies to confront the question of just how far they're willing to go to assist US Efforts. Alright, coming up in the back of the brief, China's astronauts are stuck in space. I'll have those details when we come back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Well, not to scare you, but the holidays will be here before you know it. And for many families, well, of course that means excitement and also a little stress. 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Hey, it's Sean Spicer reminding you to tune in to the Sean Spicer show every weeknight right here. You're not going to want to miss our analysis. Whether it's the media, politics, campaigns, the upcoming midterms, Supreme Court rulings, we've got it all covered for you with the best guests in politics, the pundits, the pollsters, members of the House of Representatives, members of the Senate, candidates running for both, and key members of President Trump's administration, you're not going to want to miss it.
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In today's Back of the brief, China's latest space mission was supposed to be routine, a textbook returned to earth after six months aboard the country's Diangong space station. But instead of a smooth landing, the three member crew is stuck in orbit waiting for the all clear. Their return was delayed after Mission Control detected a growing cloud of space debris in the projected re entry path. That debris, created by decades of satellite launches and collisions and missile tests, now poses one of the greatest hazards to modern space flight. A single fragment moving at orbital speed roughly 17,000 miles per hour, can puncture a spacecraft or destroy it outright. So for now, the astronauts, part of the Shenzhou 18 mission, are staying put. Officials at China's Manned Space Engineering Office said on Tuesday that the crew remains in good condition, working and living normally. They emphasize there's no danger to the astronauts and that they're continuing routine operations aboard the station while the ground team reassesses the safest time for re entry. The three crew members launched back in April of this year to conduct a series of experiments and to carry out maintenance work on the station. They were expected to return this week, then handing over control to the incoming Shenzhou 19 team. That crew, however, has been ordered to delay its own launch until the orbital path is cleared. China's space agency has not disclosed the source of the debris, but analysts note that recent anti satellite tests and the breakup of aging satellites have worsened conditions in low Earth orbit. The US Space Command currently tracks more than 40,000 pieces of debris, though experts estimate the real number of dangerous fragments is in the hundreds of thousands. If all goes as planned, China's astronauts could attempt re entry in the coming days once Mission Control confirms a clear orbital window. Their spacecraft, equipped with redundant shielding and emergency life support reserves, is designed to remain docked to the space station for extended periods if necessary. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily brief for Wednesday 12th November. If you have any questions or comments, and I hope you do, please reach out to me at pdb@thefirst tv.com and don't forget to tell your friends and family and colleagues about the pdb. They'll thank you for it. They can find us, of course, on YouTube, at President's Daily Brief, and on podcast platforms all around Podcast Land. I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.
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