Hall for the u. S. To reduce dependence on russia in the Space Program. Peter cook, with the latest on russia joining on crimea joining the russian federation. Busy 24 hours. We had the crisis escalating today when the russian president , after that big speech in front of the parliament in moscow, basically officially absorbing crimea into russia, with a signature on a document. You had western nations condemning that russian action, and promising to respond by stepping up sanctions. They warning the crisis is entering a new, more dangerous phase of live ammunition. The greenlight for that in ukraine. President putin effectively bringing crimea back into the russian fold. Kremlinally televised speech where putin defended russias actions in ukraine. The referendum was open, and it was fair. The people in crimea, clearly, expressed their will. Putin says russia has no plans to move beyond crimea, but reserve the right to defend russian speakers in other parts of ukraine. In crimea, tensions clearly rising. A soldier was killed. An unidentified masked gunmen stormed a military installation, reading the Prime Minister to declare the crisis entering a military phase. The greenlight a short time ago for live ammunition. In poland, jill biden condemning russias latest moves. Condemning russias latest moves. Justifying what is nothing more than a land grab, including what was said today. But the world has seen through russias action, and has rejected the logic, the flawed logic, behind those actions. Biden promising the u. S. Will respond with more sanctions aimed at russia. Sanctionss effectively mocked in moscow. Some of those targeted sitting on the front row as fodor putin delivered his speech. Like you had a chance to talk to the point man on the sanctions. Are they ready to dial things up . Quick david cohen is the undersecretary in the treasury department, the guy responsible for this hit list. I asked him, does the u. S. Have credibility . Is that going to be a credible threat to the russians . Here is how he responded. It is a powerful tool, a flexible tool, and one we think we have in other circumstances demonstrated we are quite capable of using. I know the russians understand that we have a very good track record, in terms of applying sanctions in an escalating fraction fashion in response to an escalating threat. He did not identify who the next targets will be. Will the u. S. Go after staterun banks . Will it go after top executives of Russian Energy firms . Peter cook, joining us here in new york. For more on the crisis in ukraine, former nato supreme allied commander james joins us on the phone. Welcome to bottom line. Thank you for your time today. Nice to be with you. That russia has increased its military presence near ukraines border, even as president Vladimir Putin promised to oppose a further division of ukraine. Are these military movements just for show, or is russia preparing to annex parts of ukraine . I personally find it very unlikely that russia will make an immediate move into eastern ukraine. I think Vladimir Putin will take a strategic pause and see what the reaction is around the world. That is why it is so important that nato, the United States, and other allies around the world you saw japan unknown sanctions. It is so important that the world stand together against this violation of international law. The ukrainian Prime Minister said the crisis has shifted from political to military. Peter cook was just telling us that one Ukrainian Military personnel was killed today. What needs to happen to prevent a full military confrontation . I think one thing nato could be doing is working in cooperation with the Ukrainian Military. Ukraine is not a nato ally. There is no question of boots on the ground or sending military force. But we can support the intelligence with logistics, equipment, servers, and advisors. That would have a tendency to show russia that there is concern in the west, in very real ways. The second thing nato should be doing is reassuring nato allies lithuania,a, latvia, poland, and so forth. That is why you see Vice President biden there in poland today. We need to reassure them the Nato Alliance is the Gold Standard of security. When you were supreme commander, you worked with ukrainian troops. Assess their capabilities. Are they battleready . What does military preparedness mean in terms of ukraines overall economy . They are very weak in terms of absolute military power. They were willing. They were spirited. They operated with us in afghanistan, in the balkans. They made efforts in the beer. They sent a ship for counterpiracy. They cannot stand up to the russian war machine. You put your finger on it. They have financial constraints that are going to be very top. This is where the west can be helpful with the eu package, the imf package, the u. S. Announcing a billion dollars. All of that, i think, has a deterrent effect on the russians. Putin told lawmakers crimea was, in his words, an inalienable part of russia. Is that nationalistic talk in the russians or the International Community . I think both. He is certainly playing off very high approval ratings. This is the kind of red meat he can throw out to russian nationalists at home. By the same token, he is bearing his fangs to the west. I think it is going to be very difficult to climb down out of crimea. Ensuringgame now is that ukraine itself is not divided. If any, vulnerability does russia have . Where has it made miscalculations about the resolve of the International Community . I have two words for you gazprom and draws not and rozneft. Sanctions they go after the energy side of the house of the one trick pony are going to be in the mix, in the conversation. You should not underestimate the effect of personalized sanctions on highlevel executives in those industries. He will have bite over time. Is a twoedged sword that will have impact in western economies, but i think it is time to show that the west will stand against this economically, diplomatically, politically, and supporting the ukraine militarily. We have about a minute left. Sanctions against russia have been imposed by the United States and European Union. There is already criticism they do not go far enough. Are the sanctions enough to isolate russia and reduce military tensions . I do not think so. I think they will need to be increased if we want to have real effect. Conversations are on european capitals today, connecting with washington and other nations around the world, will be along these lines precisely. How far and how quickly do we need to raise these to get the attention of Vladimir Putin . The former nato supreme allied commander, currently dean of the Fletcher School at tufts university, joining us on the phone. Thanks for your time and expertise. We appreciate it. My pleasure. Ukraines crisis filters through talks on Irans Nuclear program. We will have those details in a moment. The u. S. Federal reserves today meeting to set Interest Rates is underway. The sure to join us for special coverage of the feds rate decision, and Janet Yellens first News Conference as fed chair. That is wednesday, starting just before 2 00 p. M. New york time. Diplomats from United States, russia, the European Union, china, and iran, are back in vienna to resume negotiations. But the crisis in ukraine is casting a shadow on those talks. Joint indira joins me on the phone from vienna. How is the conflict in ukraine affecting the negotiations . Like the specter of crimea is hanging over these talks. You have the u. S. And the European Union, who have both sanctioned russia not only this week, but also two weeks ago, over its actions in the ukraine and crimea. And yet they are supposed to be sitting on the same side of the table with russia and china to pressure iran at the talks in vienna. Case overnteresting whether great powers can separate the problems they have between themselves, when they are trying to cooperate over something else. We have asked repeatedly about this. The u. S. Side insists that they believe it is in russias own interest to stop iran from getting a nuclear weapon. They do not think it is going to interfere with the talks. At this point, it is pretty delicate. Long as you are sanctioning the deputy Prime Minister of russia, who is in charge of the defense programs of the country, you never know what might happen on the other side. Speaking of what is happening, let us talk about the sidelines. Anything behindthescenes to report . We know right now that the u. S. And iran have, minutes ago, gone into a bilateral meeting. That is significant because it is the first bilateral meeting they have had in these talks wase the interim deal agreed upon. Whatises a question of, are the issues on the table . We know they are talking about enrichment at low levels and medium enrichment. Andu. S. , europe, china, russia want them to stop all enrichment. They are talking about the military aspects of the program. They are talking about the possible plutonium from a reactor. There are a lot of issues on the table. They have got a limited time before july to try to get a final deal. Last week, official media reported russia will be building at least two Nuclear Reactors in iran. How is that playing into the negotiations, even the current tension . That raises a really interesting question. Russia supplies nuclear fuel for irans only operating atomic power plant. On one hand, it would be a commercial disadvantage for the russians to allow the iranians to produce their own fuel, if they bought more reactors from russia. Hand, given the problem we are seeing between russia, the eu, and the United States, that is one way they could stir up problems. Saying, they should be able to enrich their own fuel. A very interesting question to follow. Joining us on the phone from vienna. Thank you so much. When we continue, preparing its reputation. Alibaba has enlisted highpriced talent to lobby washington as it gets closer to an ipo. We heard from david cohen, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, about the crisis in ukraine. He also came to speak about the regulatory challenges of Virtual Currencies like it coin. Bitcoin. We have different regulatory requirements we deployed in different financial products. We are veryency, comfortable that we have the appropriate regulatory tools in place. But just as the industry continues to evolve, we are going to continue to look at our regulatory approach and evolve that we are staying at least abreast of the risks that may be developing. Smart expert matt miller joins the conversation. With broke a lot of news us this morning, saying someone from the Bitcoin Community is on treasurys bank secrecy committee. It is a secret committee, so he would not give us the name of the individual. But i think it is incredibly interesting that treasury has someone who is likely from the bitcoin foundation, or from coin washington,hem in helping them to regulate this currency, helping them to make decisions about what to do with it and what not to do with that. And lending it the legitimacy that some people say it deserves. Can regulators keep up with bitcoin at the pace which it is evolving . The answer is yes. Very smart dave a man, and the other people at treasury, but they have their finger on the pulse. They are talking to people who are involved with the biggest businesses leading the charge of it coin. They are talking to people involved in the bitcoin foundation. They are reading reddit. They are on social media. They know it can be used for innovations. Also, it can be used for illicit activity. They want to keep track of it, make it more transparent, to stop illicit activity. Where they pressured into this activity . Did social media put pressure on them to look at this stuff . In a sense, you could say they were pressured into this position because of the explosion of the popularity of it coin and the acceptance. Of bitcoin. There are 30,000 merchants in this. S. Accepting there are businesses springing up all over the country that except it coin accept bi tcoin. The point that david cohen made is, unless treasury gets involved, unless the regulation is set up around this, it will not become the mainstream currency a lot of people are expecting it to be. Underground, in a sense. It is interesting to hear them so concerned. Matt miller, thanks so much. Alibaba is headed toward an initial public offering, setting up one of the most highprofile events in years. It was the work in washington, behind the scenes, that may have helped clear the way. Atl mattingly took a look the companys work. It starts with the top u. S. Trade office. The u. S. Trade representative keeps a very close eye on counterfeit products and piracy throughout world markets. How does that apply . It applies in the form of their ecommerce operation. The u. S. Trade representative named taubau on the notorious markets list. The response from ali, on that has been crucial. That response included lobbying, 400,000 a year for the last two years, as well as the hiring of a former top lawyer to help push its case. The company clearly recognized this was going to be a major problem, and within a year, that had gotten themselves removed from that list. Walk us through past 18 months. How did this work . I looked at what alibaba did. 2011, they were named to this list by the u. S. Trade representative. 2012, they had brought on the former general counsel to be their lead on this issue. At the same time, they started major outreach with industry groups. Motion picture association of america. Recording artists, software groups, groups that complained openly to the trade representative about the piracy and counterfeit issues. They filed a 29 page letter with the trade rep, laying out all of the things they had done internally to try to counter and combat the problems they were facing. Process,ontinued this i december of 2012, they were off the list. 2013. Tinued into they started signing agreements with international counterfeiting organizations. Month, the just last ustr announced they would no longer be on that list for the second consecutive year. Phil mattingly, joining us from washington. Bloomberg is on the markets. Senior markets correspondent julie hyman, good afternoon. We do have a rally going on today. Levels,e up to record but pretty sizable. The s p up about 13 points. The nasdaq leading the pack, up by about 1. 2 . We had better than estimated economic data, particularly on housing. That raises hopes about the spring selling season. It sounds like Vladimir Putin of russia is not ratcheting up the rhetoric in a fashion that some had expected. Or that reason, there is a little bit of relief in the markets today. Let us take a look at a couple of techrelated stocks trading higher today. First up is google. The internet giant is working to bring Android Software to smart watches. Google is releasing new products to bring apps like chat that will work on wearable products. Fossil shares are getting a push higher as well. The watchmaker says it is working with google to help support that push into wearable technology. We will be back on the markets in 30 minutes. Welcome back to bottom line. Let us check some of the top stories at this hour. President obama is gathering allied leaders for a meeting in europe next week to discuss further action in response to russias involvement in ukraine. The president invited leaders of the g7 and European Union to meet on the sidelines of the Nuclear Summit next week in the netherlands. It will focus on what steps the group can take to respond to developments in ukraine. With a sweep of his pen, Vladimir Putin added crimea to the map of russia. The Russian Senate plans to ratify the crimea ascension on friday. The Associated Press said checks to the background of chinese citizens on board the missing malaysia airliner have uncovered no links to terrorism. Malaysia said it is trying to narrow the search for the missing boeing 777 and its more than 200 passengers and crew. The search is now the longest in modern aviation history. The home industry appears to have stabilized after a slowdown blamed on bad weather. Housing starts were little changed in february. A pickup in demand may help boost construction in the spring. Living with diabetes is a daily struggle. Israelibased company unveiled a device that aims to make life easier for diabetics, using a smart phone. We showed how the new device works. This is a combination of a smartphone and a personalized smart meter. The first piece is the meter itself. It does not need a battery. Both iphone and android. The other pieces are a lancing device and 25 strips. They understand the habits and behavior of the specific nation. It will be able to provide the overall experience in order to advise the user in how to take care of his disease. Withll also provide him tangible measures. Raised company, you have 17 million. We have raised the 20 million. We have 2. 5 million left. Either that means more fundraising, or profits very quickly. We are in a good position to execute in the next couple of months. They think technology will be transformed to other chronic disease. This is why we think along the way we will not be balanced in the next couple of months, but we will expand the technology to other diseases. Can expect the u. S. Economy to inch along with a modest recovery this year. That is the headline from the roundtable survey of ceo expectations for the First Quarter of 2014. But they caution Economic Growth will be well below potential. They are calling on congress to act soon on issues li