The President's Daily Brief - February 26th, 2025: The Kremlin Pushes Back On President Trump & North Korea’s $1.5 Billion Crypto Heist

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: The Kremlin contradicts President Trump, stating that Russia has not dropped its opposition to peacekeeping forces in Ukraine—despite Trump’s claim to the contrary. We’ll break down the latest diplomatic friction. The U.S. turns up the heat on Iran, as the State and Treasury Departments reinstate 'maximum pressure' sanctions on Tehran’s shadowy oil trade. What does this mean for the regime? North Korean hackers have reportedly pulled off the biggest crypto heist in history—stealing $1.5 billion from one of the world’s largest exchanges. Experts warn the stolen funds could fuel Pyongyang’s weapons programs. And in today’s Back of the Brief, a mysterious illness in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed more than 50 people. Some of the victims reportedly fell ill after eating a bat—health officials are scrambling for answers. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's Wednesday, 26th February. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Coming to you from on the road, and it looks like I'm in St. Louis, the great town of St. Louis, where I had the terrific opportunity to speak to the YPO chapter of St. Louis, and they have a terrific bunch of people, all extremely well representing the great town of St. Louis.

So there you have it. There's the latest. You've been briefed. Oh, wait, no, you haven't. Let's get briefed. We'll start things off today with the Kremlin, contradicting President Trump. Moscow says it has not dropped its opposition to peacekeeping forces in Ukraine, despite Trump's claim to the contrary. Seems that there's still a ways to go before the White House and the Kremlin are on the same page. But to be fair, well, the White House and the Kremlin have never been on the same page. Later in the show, the U.S. is turning up the heat on Iran.

The state and treasury departments have reinstated what are referred to as maximum pressure sanctions on Tehran's shadowy oil trade. We'll look at what this means for the regime. Plus, North Korean hackers have reportedly pulled off the biggest crypto heist in history, stealing $1.5 billion, that's with a B, from one of the world's largest exchanges. and experts warn that the stolen funds could fuel Pyongyang's weapons programs. We'll take a look at how Kim Jong-un's minions pulled off the caper. And in today's back of the brief, not to be alarming, but a mysterious illness in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the DRC, has killed more than 50 people. Health officials are scrambling for answers, and reports say some of the victims fell ill after eating a bat. Okay, so there's one health advisory, quit eating bats.

But first, today's PDP spotlight. President Trump is facing some pushback from Moscow over his claims that Vladimir Putin is ready to accept the deployment of a European peacekeeping coalition to Ukraine, suggesting that a deal to secure an end to the war may still be far off. As a brief refresher, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Kier Starmor have recently been championing a plan. to send a contingent of European peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event that a ceasefire deal is reached in order to enforce its terms and deter future Russian aggression. Just last week, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov stated flatly that the Kremlin would not support the deployment of any NATO troops, regardless of what flag they're operating under, calling the scenario, quote, unacceptable. Well, that seems fairly clear.

But on Monday, during a press conference in the Oval Office alongside Macron, Trump confidently asserted that Putin was on board with the concept, telling reporters, quote, yeah, he'll accept that. I specifically asked him that question. He has no problem with it, end quote. Well, hmm, not so fast, said the Kremlin. Their spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, firmly stated on Tuesday that Moscow had not dropped their opposition to the proposal and had no intention of shifting their position. He referred reporters back to Lavrov's comments that a peacekeeping force would be perceived as a direct threat to Russia and said the Kremlin had nothing further to add regarding the issue. Now, it seems like someone needs to talk to Putin and explain that nobody is looking to take over Russia.

Everything in the fellow's mind is a direct threat to Russia. That's what happens when you grow up in the Cold War and never evolved from that mentality. He's never, ever gotten over the collapse of the Soviet Union. The icy rebuke followed comments by Putin in an interview on Monday evening that appeared to pour cold water on Trump's hopes for a quick settlement to the war. During his meeting with Macron on Monday, Trump had suggested that the war could end within a matter of weeks. But Putin didn't appear to get the memo. While Putin praised Trump's approach to the Russian conflict, saying he was one of the few world leaders that was acting rationally, Putin said Russian and U.S. officials have yet to discuss specifics on how.

to bring the war to a resolution. The Russian strongman described last week's talks in Riyadh between U.S. and Russian delegations as a diplomatic starting point focused on establishing trust between Moscow and Washington, which he said was key to getting more substantive negotiations off the ground. Putin said, quote, we only agreed that we would move toward this, but added that the war was, quote, not discussed in detail. He said the next few rounds of talks would still be devoted to rebuilding that trust and only then were the discussion turned to finding ways to settle the conflict.

A spokesman for Putin later drove the point home, saying, quote, in order to say that we trust the Americans, we have to go a long way. We need to take many, many small steps. Well, if it's any consolation, fella, the Americans feel the same way about your government. I mean, it's almost like they've forgotten that Russia is the invading country. As we've been tracking on the PDB, the exclusion of Kiev and NATO allies from the Riyadh talks has caused widespread panic in Europe, with concerns that the Trump administration could cut a deal with Russia behind their backs that favors Putin's interests. But Putin dismissed criticism

of Trump's approach, saying such fears were based in emotion and not logic. He claimed that once conversations between Washington and Moscow turned to reaching a settlement with Ukraine, European countries would be welcomed to the table. While it looks like that process is still a long ways off, Trump is holding his own talks with European leaders. As I noted, French President Macron visited Trump on Monday in an attempt to get on the same page regarding a strategy for Ukraine. And British Prime Minister Kier-Starmer will meet with Trump on Thursday. While the meeting between Trump and Macron was friendly, Macron did press Trump to take a more deliberate approach towards ending the war, arguing that he should reach a consensus with leaders in Kiev before rushing into talks

with the Putin regime. On that score, it appears that Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky have finally found some common ground, despite their recent diplomatic spat. Spat, that's an interesting word. Trump announced Tuesday that Zelensky would be visiting the White House on Friday to sign a deal to grant the U.S. access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals, critical minerals, after two weeks of tense negotiations. While details of the agreement were not immediately clear,

U.S. officials have argued that the arrangement will give the U. U.S. a powerful strategic incentive to provide long-term security guarantees to Kiev to deter future Russian aggression. Now, as with everything involving this conflict, the reality of any mineral steel is a bit more complicated than we've been hearing, because in reality, the majority of key Ukrainian minerals of interest are actually located in the 20% of territory currently held by Russia. That's what we'd call a complication. Right. Coming up next, the U.S. reinstate's maximum pressure sections on Iran's oil trade, while North Korea hackers pull off a record-breaking $1.5 billion crypto heist.

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Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Ebbglis. Before starting Ebbglis, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Ask your doctor about Ebbglis and visit Ebbgless.com or call 1-800-LillyRX or 1-800-545-9-9. Welcome back to the PDB. The U.S. State and Treasury departments are ratcheting up sanctions aimed at Iran's shadowy oil trade by reviving the Trump administration's maximum pressure campaign from the president's first term, as tensions between Tehran and Washington remain frigid.

That's putting it mildly. On Monday, the State Department announced sanctions against 16 entities and vessels involved in what it terms a, quote, network of illicit shipping facilitators that have helped Iran circumvent previous restrictions through opaque transactions and deceptive routing to buyers in Asia. In coordination, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC, imposed additional sanctions on 22 individuals and designated 13 vessels as, quote, blocked property due to their roles in the Iranian regime's oil industry. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce underscored the scale of the operation, stating that the sanctioned parties facilitated the shipment of, quote, tens of millions of barrels of crude oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars. She emphasized that this action as part of a robust strategy to cut off the regime's economic

lifeline and undermine its capacity to finance regional proxies and terrorism. According to OFAC, the sanctions cast a wide net, ensnaring oil brokers in the UAE and Hong Kong, tanker operators in India and China, and the Iranian oil terminals company. That's a pivotal entity in the regime's revenue stream. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to cracking down on those facilitating Iran's clandestine oil supply chain, warning that anyone involved in such oil transactions faces significant sanctions risks. He emphasized that the regime relies on covert networks to sustain its operations, which the U.S. is determined to dismantle. For years, Iran has operated a so-called

shadow fleet of tankers utilizing deceptive practices such as ship-to-ship transfers, falsified documentation, and disabling tracking systems. all to circumvent Western sanctions and clandestinely export crude. Now, this is similar, of course, to what Russia has been doing for some years to evade energy sanctions. Unsurprisingly, Iran dismissed the latest crackdown as futile. Following President Trump's executive order, reactivating the sanctions campaign, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, asserted, quote, maximum pressure is a failed experiment, and trying it again will only lead to another failure, end quote.

The Iranian regime has also rejected accusations that its shadowy oil trade funds terrorism. Oh, they're denying that. And insists it will resist any attempts to curb its nuclear program or economic expansion. The U.S., however, remains undeterred. The latest sanctions package is part of a broader initiative to reduce Iran's oil exports down to zero, with a particular focus on shipments to China, the world's second largest oil consumer behind the U.S., and Iran's most significant remaining customer.

In the order, Trump explicitly referred to Iran's exports to China, saying those should also come to a complete halt. All right, shifting now to North Korea. It looks like the regime executed the largest cryptocurrency heist on record, siphoning a staggering $1.5 billion from the by-bed crypto exchange in a single lightning-fast operation. The scale of the theft executed in mere mere minimum, minutes last Friday, eclipses Pyongyang's previous cyber heists and represents a significant chunk

of the country's estimated annual GDP. According to Cryptotracing firm TRM Labs, the single hack nearly doubled what North Korea's formidable hacking course stole in digital currency last year. Bybit, which touts itself as the world's second largest cryptocurrency exchange with more than 40 million users, confirmed the breach, but insisted that it remained solvent despite the staggering loss. Bybitt's CEO stated that the company is working closely with regulators and law enforcement, but the incident does underscore a troubling reality. North Korea's cyber units continue to expose vulnerabilities in the global cryptocurrency sector, turning it into a lucrative funding stream for the regime's illicit operations. Cybersecurity analysts warn that the sheer scale and

sophistication of the attack emphasized Pyongyang's deepening reliance on cybercrime to circumvent international sanctions and bankrollets nuclear and missile programs. Former FBI intelligence analyst Nick Carlson, now with TRM Labs, emphasized the gravity of the situation, saying, quote, the ability of these illicit financial networks to absorb such huge amounts of money so quickly is deeply concerning, end quote. And the laundering process is already underway. In the days following the attack, the North Korean operatives began washing approximately

$160 million of the stolen phone. funds, dispersing assets through a web of digital wallets to obscure their origins. This follows a well-worn playbook. Once a heist is completed, Pyongyang's cyber units typically convert stolen cryptocurrency into U.S. dollars or Chinese one through shadowy brokers, making it difficult for authorities to seize the funds before they disappear into underground financial networks. Investigators in the U.S. and South Korea are scrambling to track and recover portions of the stolen assets. So far, a group of crypto security specialists claims to have clawed back $43 million,

while blockchain tracing firm elliptic reports an additional $243,000 in seized funds. But these efforts are, well, little more than a drop in the ocean, as the vast majority of the money remains unaccounted for. This latest heist presents an immediate test to the Trump administration, which now faces the challenge of responding to North Korea's increasingly aggressive cyberwar tactics. A White House official in 2023 estimated that as much as half of Pyongyang's missile program is funded through cybercrime, making the disruption of its hacking networks a national security priority. For Washington and its allies, the challenge now is how to disrupt North Korea's cyber operations more effectively and prevent the regime from further exploiting digital financial

systems in an effort to evade sanctions. All right, coming up in the back of the brief. A deadly mystery unfolding in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where dozens of people have died from an unknown illness. And some of the victims reportedly fell ill after eating a bat. I'll be right back. Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money, whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion-dollar swings.

There's a money side to every story. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com. away. A Lego set is a gift that always clicks. And clicks. Mom, look. It's so beautiful. And clicks. For every nature lover, choose a Lego set. A gift that always clicks. Welcome back. In today's back of the brief, a mysterious illness is tearing through parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the DRC, setting off alarm bells with health authorities who are warning of a, quote, significant public health threat, end quote. The unknown illness first discovered in three children who ate the carcass of a bat

has already killed more than 50 people in northwestern Congo over the past five weeks, and so far, well, it shows no signs of slowing down. Disturbingly, the time between the onset of symptoms and death has been just 48 hours in most fatal cases. That's according to a report from CBS News. The World Health Organization, the WHO, which is scrambling to identify the contagion, has logged at least 431 cases of the mystery disease since January, with victims appearing to suffer from hemorrhagic fever symptoms. The symptoms have included severe fever, vomiting

blood, and an internal bleeding, though some victims have reported milder symptoms like muscle eggs or headaches and fatigue. Officials underscored the serious nature of the outbreak, noting that the illness appears to have a fatality rate of roughly 12.3 percent. So far, the WHO has tested samples from 13 cases at the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Congo's capital. While all the samples have tested negative for Ebola or common hemorrhagic fever diseases like Marburg, some have tested positive for malaria. Now, before folks get ready to break out the masks and stockpile supplies, and by the way, don't forget the toilet paper,

we should stress that there is no indication that the current outbreak risks spreading globally. It's worth keeping in mind that the Congo has suffered from many diseases. outbreaks in recent years, including typhoid, malaria, and Mpox. Just last year, a mystery flu-like illness killed more than 143 people before being contained. It was later determined to be an aggressive strain of malaria. Still, officials with the WHO warned that the remote location of the affected areas, along with the Congo's weak health care infrastructure, increased the risk of further spread in the country and require, quote, immediate high-level intervention to contain the outbreak, end quote. Here at the PDB, we'll keep an eye on this and bring you further details

as they develop. And that, my friends, is the president's daily brief for Wednesday, 26 February. As you may have heard me mention in the past, to listen to the show, add free, well, just become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting PDB premium.com. It really is just that simple. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. If you used Babel, you would. Babel's conversation-based techniques teaches you useful words and phrases to get you speaking quickly about the things you actually talk about in the real world, with lessons

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