also ordered russian troops into those regions to carry out what mr pullen calls peacekeeping functions. joining me now from our asia business hub is mariko oi. tell us about what is going in the minds of investors where are right now? as we were discussing earlier of course the stock markets here in asia have been react into the latest development but the first reaction we saw this morning here in asia was actually oil prices, as you said they are now trading at the highest level and almost seven years, and investors are closely watching notjust seven years, and investors are closely watching not just what is happening but also sanctions, because the us, uk, canada have all said that they will impose economic sanctions but of course one of the biggest sanctions russia has been threatened with is the cancellation of the nord stream two pipeline which was of course designed to double russia s natural gas to germany. president biden has repeatedly said that it would shut down if russian
mutual assistance, what they are talking about is the president ordering the armed forces of russia to ensure peacekeeping functions, so they could very well open the door to piece keepers in quote, going in, of course, the intent to protect the people there. obviously the russians wouldn t say it s an invasion, but it would be a peacekeeping protected function. that s what they would say. clarissa, how are ukranian civilians bracing for what s likely to come? well, i think there s been a super shift here. make no mistake. for days we ve been talking about relatively calm people, are but tonight through conversations that i ve had on social media and talking to people, it s clear and there s a real sense of palpable fear, that this could potentially constitute the beginning of an invasion, and i would say the
he goes for war, he has to do it fast and then start preparing for peace negotiations. so perilous hours tonight, to be sure. jill, so putin has signed these decrees regarding eastern ukraine. what exactly do they say? what do they authorize? reporter: well, they recognize, number one, and that is a violation of the territorial integrity and the sovereignty of ukraine. recognizes these two breakaway regions, donetsk and luhansk people s republics and then they have a friendship cooperation and mutual assistance part of that. and within that part, the president, president putin, authorizes the russian military to carry out, to ensure peacekeeping functions, is the way it is put. so again, tacitly those officially, according to the