The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | October 23rd, 2025: Russia’s Undersea Spy Network & Foiled Parcel Bomb Plot

Episode Date: October 23, 2025

In this episode of The President’s Daily Brief: Russia’s been caught building a secret undersea spy network in the Arctic — powered by Western technology. We’ll explain how the system works, what it means for NATO, and why this undersea network could shift the balance of power in the next great intelligence contest. Later, European security services foil another Russian terror plot. Authorities in Poland and Romania say they’ve stopped a plan to send explosive parcels to Ukraine — part of Moscow’s growing campaign of sabotage across the continent. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief StopBox: Get firearm security redesigned and save 15% off @StopBoxUSA with code BAKER at https://www.stopboxusa.com/BAKER #stopboxpod Birch Gold: Text PDB to 989898 and get your free info kit on gold Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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another Russian terror plot. Authorities in Poland and Romania say they've stopped a plan to send explosive parcels to Ukraine. It's all part of Moscow's growing campaign of sabotage across the continent. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. Today, new reporting suggests Russia may be outsmarting Western intelligence, this time beneath the Arctic ice. A Washington Post investigation has uncovered how Moscow secretly built an underwater surveillance system, essentially a spy network on the seafloor, designed to both track Western underwater activities and shield its own nuclear submarines from detection. The network is called Harmony. Well, that's a peaceful and happy-sounding name, and it stretches across the Arctic seabed with an array of sensors,

hydroacoustic buoys, and fiber-optic cables. It's meant to give Russia a real-time picture of what's happening in its northern waters, specifically it tells them when U.S. or NATO submarines are getting too close. Now, what makes this story remarkable isn't just the technology itself, but where it came from. Much of the equipment inside this system, including sonar components and underwater drones, was sourced from the West. The report says Russia used a maze of front companies and middlemen to quietly purchase Western-made parts from suppliers in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Norway, and Sweden, slipping them through sanctions and export controls. One of those firms, registered in Cyprus under the name Mostrello Commercial Limited, served as a procurement hub, ordering advanced under C-Tech

that was later rerouted to Russian military research centers. These acquisitions went on for years, often disguised as purchases for civilian oceanographic research. In reality, of course, they were building the eyes and ears of Russia's nuclear fleet. Now for context, Russia's nuclear submarine force is central to its deterrent strategy. These subs carry ballistic missiles capable of striking the U.S., and they operate primarily from bases along the Kola Peninsula and the Arctic. The region is what Moscow calls its, quote, bastion, a heavily defended zone meant to guarantee that if Russia were ever attacked, it could still launch a devastating second strike. The Harmony Network strengthens that bastion. By planting sensors across the seafloor,

Russian commanders can detect enemy submarines long before they approach launch zones. It's a defensive shield and one that tilts the balance of power beneath the waves. Western analysts say this news is a wake-up call. Well, that's nice. While sanctions have squeezed Russia's economy, this investigation shows just how effectively the Kremlin has worked around them, especially when it comes to acquiring critical technology. One former intelligence official told the post that Russia's success, quote, demonstrates a failure of Western export enforcement, oh, you think, and that the same playbook could be easily used to undermine other sanctions regimes.

The bigger concern is what this means for submarine warfare. For decades, NATO's advantage rested on its ability to track Russian boats, quietly and constantly. If Harmony allows Moscow to spot those patrols or, worse, identify what a U.S. submarine is tailing one of theirs, it could change how both sides operate. Think of it this way. During the Cold War, American Soviet subs played a cat-and-mouse game across the oceans. This system gives Russia new tools to find their targets before they get too close. It's unclear how extensive Harmony's coverage is, or how advanced its sensors are. Western intelligence agencies have likely known about it for years, but the scope and sourcing of its components were not fully

understood, at least publicly, until now. Meanwhile, European security officials are reportedly reassessing how to plug the gaps in export control networks. That's a good idea that allowed all of this to happen. And there's another interesting angle here, the undersea infrastructure itself. Harmony is laid alongside some of the same Arctic routes that carry global internet cables and energy pipelines. That raises concerns that Russia's surveillance system could double as an intelligence collection platform, monitoring more than just submarines. Despite sanctions, despite isolation, Russia's military-industrial complex has shown that it remains resourceful, adaptive, and creative in busting those sanctions. All right, coming up next, Russia's covert war in Europe continues.

Poland and Romania bust up a cell accused of plotting explosive parcel attacks on Ukraine. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Now, if like me you own a handgun for self-defense, or frankly more than one, your storage likely falls into two frustrating categories, locked away and out of reach or unsecured and vulnerable. And neither option is good. So let me tell you about a great company called Stopbox.

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Kayak, got that right. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. Moscow is keeping Europe's counterintelligence agencies busy these days. This week, a new parcel bomb plot was uncovered, this time stretching from Poland to Romania, allegedly coordinated by Russian intelligence and meant to strike Ukrainian targets. Officials in both countries confirmed eight arrests in a joint sting operation this week. Three of those, investigators say, were tied directly to a parcel bomb network run under Moscow's watch. And here's the twist.

those three suspects are Ukrainian citizens. According to a spokesman for Poland's special services coordinator, the group had, quote, created a route of some kind to send explosives through Poland and Romania to Ukraine. One of the Ukrainians, just 21 years old, was arrested near Warsaw. The two others were picked up in Bucharest by Romania's anti-organized crime unit, D.E.Cot. Of course, it has a clever sounding acronym. Investigators say the pair in Bucharest dropped off packages filled with homemade incendiary devices at an international delivery firm on the 15th of October, hoping to torch the building and its cargo. Deecotte confirmed in a statement that, quote, the devices were dismantled by specialists, adding that both suspects remain in custody for 30 days pending charges.

Romania's intelligence service, the SRI, went a step further. It said those arrested were acting, quote, under direct coordination of representatives of Russian secret services, and their target was a Bucharest office of Nova Post. That's a Ukrainian logistics company. Their mission was to intimidate and to destabilize, to send a message to European allies and to Kyiv. Polish prosecutors, meanwhile, confirmed the intercepted shipments were built to either ignite or explode mid-transit, a signature, they say, of Moscow's hybrid war campaign. Espionage, sabotage, cyber attacks, each had different instrument in the same Russian orchestra, all meant to rattle Europe's resolve. Now, regular listeners of the PDB will know that this isn't an isolated incident. It's part of a trend. Earlier this year,

the European Security Services linked Russia to a string of parcel detonations across the continent, packages routed through courier giants like DPD and DHL. Investigators now believe those incidents were dry runs testing the logistics for a larger plan, detonating by. bombs aboard cargo flights bound for the U.S. Moscow, of course, here's no surprise, denies the charges. You may recall from last week's PDB, Polish prosecutors charged a Russian couple with espionage, and in the husband's case, he was plotting to send a parcel bomb through the mail. Estonia also reported an arrest tied to what it called a directed operation linked to Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU.

Earlier this year in the UK, three men were convicted for torching a warehouse that toward humanitarian aid meant for Ukraine, including generators and Starlink terminals. British prosecutors said that attack was bankrolled by Russian intelligence. European security agencies call it part of Moscow's active measures, a decades-old term for the Kremlin's mix of propaganda, covert operations, and psychological warfare. The playbook hasn't changed, just the tools, and in this case, civilian operatives and courier systems have become tools in a growing terror network. Poland's special services coordinator confirms Warsaw alone has detained 55 people in recent months, all suspected of working on Russia's behalf.

Different names, same tactics. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Thursday, the 23rd of October. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting PDB premium. dot com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. Wireless can feel like a world of traps, but not with Visible. It's one-line wireless with unlimited data and hotspot.

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