Germanys chancellor Angela Merkel speaking out calling crimeas referendum on joining russia illegal. Lets get to jim maceda of nbc news in moscow. We are looking at all the different ramifications and details. And one of them, jim, is the lock that russia has on energy in ukraine and the west would have to there eticly make up for that if they dont go with russia. So now we are looking at the details, and once again, a lot of it is about money when it comes right down to it. Reporter its about money, its about energy, and right now its about president Putin Holding all of the cards, joe. Were only six days away from the referendum you referred to in your lead. Taking place in crimea. But with those international monitors now prevented for the third time from entering the peninsula over the weekend, theres no reason to doubt that the final result will be a vote in favor of seceding from ukraine and becoming part of russia. Those russian or prorussian, if you will, troops continue to consolidate militarily. They are controlling crimea. The figures are astounding, 20,000 to 30,000 forces, thats two to three divisions now occupying at least 11 Ukrainian Border guard boast posts according to ukrainian sources. Even the stretch between crimea and ukraine proper, some reporters now seeing proRussian Troops laying fresh land mines to make the point, obviously, that crimea is defactor, no longer ukraine. Thats not sabre rattling, thats real stuff. But here in moscow the kremlin continues to assist. It has no control over those prorussian malitiamen. Clearly supports them with putin still insisting that ethnic russians are under dire threat from what he calls neofascist extremists in crimea. Today they are russian. The local government there is even about to issue or is preparing to issue russian passports for all those who wish to stay. As you said in your lead, did dplo macy is hitting a wall. Angela merkel, shes emerged as the one western leader putin seems to be able to trust or turn to. He speaks good german, she speaks fluent russian, but merkel said even after that weekend call in addition to what you quoted, she said, quote, hes relentless, referring to putin, in his logic and his goal to take crimea back. Of course, the analysts here we talk to say thats the price. Crimea is the price the west must pay for russias loss of influence and putins loss of face in kiev. Joe, back to you. Well, its an old expression i use and it sounds really important. It was actually from a tv show, but no one gives you power, jim, you have to take it. And if putin knows that theres nothing anyone can do, and its really what he feels is a strategic interest to keep crimea, the borders have been, especially in that area of the rld with, think of the soviet union. Borders get redrawn all the time, and i dont know how you stop this. At this point, would it placate the west if he didnt go any further, if it was just crimea, do you think . Reporter i dont think it would placate the west. I think the west would be extremely concerned about the precedence set in modern times of a violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity. I dont think the west will be placated but the west will continue to do what it can and it can lead to an economic sanctions war, which theres no reason to believe that putin once again wouldnt win. You recall back in 2009, there was the gas wars between ukraine and russia at the time. It wasnt all for territory, it was over ukraine not paying its bills, but the effect was that much of Eastern Europe didnt have gas in the height of winter. It didnt stop putin from turning off the taps. So at this point it doesnt seem even though it looks like its going to happen, it doesnt really seem that the west has any true recourse. It will not respond militarily and it just doesnt have the economic means to squeeze putin to the point where it really hurts russia. Jim, we can talk about whats happening just in terms of on both sides diplomacy trying to work this out, but theres a situation on the ground, too, where it could be out of the west and russias control if malitias or if activists on either side in ukraine, really, escalate tensions, correct . Reporter thats correct. You have about 40 of the population of ukraine who are either ukrainian, ethnic ukrainian, they are muslims or prorussians, not a love of them who want to see they dont want to see a splitting of the country, they think it is in the countrys worst interest to see that happen. And you have the numerically strong ukraine, but very much the majority on the peninsula of this strong ethnic russian belief that unless this happens in crimea and crimea splits from ukraine, the socalled neofascists in government and kiev will squeeze them. They are going to treat those prorussians or ethnic russians as a second class community. So, yes, theres a great threat now that just locally youll have these two sides, 60 40, 55 45 in terms of percentages going at each other. That said, ukrainians ethnically speaking, ukrainians dont tend to fight those who are in control, who are ruling. Because the ukrainians have seen this before. It was russian for two centuries and then became ukrainian for 50 to 60 years and now likely to be russian again. Crimea and the russians tend to get along. They are not considered like the polls and other parts of Eastern Europe, it is not likely well see a guerilla war as suggested by some leaders, but there will certainly be local tensions. Back to you. Thank you, jim. Lets get more details on what we know about the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370. Sri is in kuala lumpur and there seems to be so much that we dont know at this point. What do we know . Reporter thats right, becky, there are clearly more questions than answers at this stage. The latest press conference just wrapped up about an hour ago. And what we do know is that we are still really waiting for the results of lab tests on oil that was found floating on the waters off the coast of malaysia and vietnam. Two oil slicks were spotted a few days ago, about 15 kilometers long. Now what the authorities are trying to do is to establish whether theres a linkage to the Malaysian Airline jet that went missing early saturday morning. We have yet to get any conclusive evidence off debris, some material that forensic investigators can bring back to analyze and reconstruct the last moments of this flight. The other point to bear in mind is that this is very much a human story, and we have learned chinese diplomats are now here in kuala lumpur, the capital of malaysia, to assist with the chinese families of the passengers on the jet who are traveling here to help them as well and also to help on the security dimension here of the stolen passports. We also learned that boeing, Technical Assistance teams from the aircraft manufacturer, have arrived here. They are talking to the authorities. And the ntsb and the faa are talking to the authorities as well here trying to help in the investigation. Becky, joe, back to you now. Sri, thank you very much. Well have more updates on this developing story. Again, sri, joining us from kuala lumpur. I didnt understand the china story, but they are looking for up exports and said the lunar moon made forecasting difficult for whatever reason. Well look at markets and worries about chinas Economic Growth that hit the asian markets overnight. Chinese exports as i just said fell unexpectedly in february adding to fears of a slowdown. The markets in the region and the nikkei as you can see there falling sharply. There are concerns about china and the situation in ukraine pushing the markets lower across some parts of europe, but they are rebounding in the ftse and the cac now up, although germanys dax is down. U. S. Futures at this hour indicated down 12. I dont see this piece anywhere but the Financial Times, but seth carmen in a letter to clients kind of not very positive here. Concerns about the just tesla and netflix. Any year in which the s p 500 jumps 32 and the nasdaq goes up 40 with corporate earnings barely increasing should be a cause for concern. Seth carmen is somebody people Pay Attention to. Someone Warren Buffett cited to look to him. Using the bword there, not buffett, bubble. The bword. I dont know, well see whether that plays out, but people, a lot of times, you can be right but you can be early. Sure. So well see. Tesla irrational exuberance is an example of that. Where is netflix . Netflix is like in the fours, isnt it . 4. 48. Top billion net cap for netflix. In the meantime, well take a look at crude oil. The dollar in gold right now. Youll see crude oil prices that are down slightly. They are down 1. 25. Thats a drop over 1. 2 . 101. 34 is the latest for wti. The dollar this morning, the yen has been up broadly against some of the china news. The aussie dollar is under pressure. The dollar is up against the euro and the yen at this point. 1. 3874 is where the euro stands. Im staying at home this year. Not going to europe . No. Look at that. Not with these prices. Thats 1. 40. I dont understand that. I dont either. All we hear is how the banks here in such better shape here than over there. Stock prices have been turning around, though. Does it seem to be a calm place over there right now, europe . Not necessarily. Ukraine is next. Its in the neighborhood. Maybe some tensions there. People have looked at these things and brushed them off very quickly. As if germany can be objective. You can cut them off, too, cant he . Yeah. We talk about how the u. S. Could be a supplier, but youre looking at 2015 or 2016 before you could ever get anything set up and running because it is not easy to export natural gas. So if we want to if we want him not to take crimea, we have to say, please dont take it. Thats what we got. Thats it. When would putin respond to please dont do it . Gates says it is gone. Not bill, but secretary gates, over the weekend, said its already gone. I dont know what you would do in that situation. If youre not willing to go to war over it, i dont know how you can dial things back. No one gives you power. You got to take it. You know who said that . Jock ewing. The patriarch said that to bobby because it sounds much more, it sounds like churchhill or something. It does. In fact, i was trying to place who it was and it was not going to be the late jim davis. Lets take a look at gold prices, they are barely down by 3 this morning. 1,335. The New York Times reporting that safety regulators received 260 complaints over the last 11 years about General Motors vehicles that suddenly turned off while being driven. How would you like to be the new ceo . Geez, step into this. They declined to investigate the problem. Which gm now says is linked to 13 deaths and requires the recall of more than 1. 6 million cars worldwide. The paper says that federal regulators received an average of two complaints per month about potentially dangerous shutdowns over the past decade, but they repeatedly responded that there was not enough evidence of a problem to warrant a safety investigation. And my whole life, you remember when they designed the steering wheels that if you turn it off they would lock. If you did that when youre moving, that shouldnt happen. And this is happening by itself. Not only did it lock the brakes and the wheels, a lot of times it would deploy the air bags. And even the company regulators, two questions on this, the company knowing things a decade ago and never having the proper controls to get it to the top people and doing something about it, and second of all, the regulators, it was over 240 complaints, i think, that came in that if they had been looking at them more closely would have seen a pattern that had developed. Even barney frank got involved at one point as a congressman and sent a form letter back saying theres not enough frustrating. 13 people. Well talk to phil lebeau about this story later in the show. And he covers the airlines, too. So we have the dreamliner that had the landing because of an engine problem and this other Malaysian Airlines. Target has until today to submit documents to the House Oversight and Government Affairs committee about the Security Breach during the 2013 Holiday Shopping season. According to a letter sent to target from darrell issa, thats evidence supporting the possibility that target knew about the breach before the doj warned the company on december 12th. Hmm. Did you i havent watched, issa dancing. I have seen pictures. Im afraid to watch it because when you watch Something Like that, you cant unwatch it. Ive seen still frames of him dancing. What is this, a Microsoft Xbox dance game that hes practicing . Ive got it here now and im afraid, quite frankly, because i love shark tank, but mark cuban dancing, where they were all dancing at the same time, i have i think i have dreamt about that last night and woke up in a cold sweat biting down on my tongue. It was uhhuh. Let me see if ive got it here. You be the guinea pig and check it out. Dont make me do this. You do this homework before we come back from the next break. Are you playing it right now . No, ive got Something Else. It was it was a different it wasnt congressman issa, i got Something Else. Youre going to find this. In the meantime, well take a break. When we come back, landing on the front page of the New York Times today, part of this mornings executive edge. Well have more squawk in a moment. Weekdays are for rising to the challenge. Theyre the days to take care of business. When possibilities become reality. With centurylink as your trusted partner, our visionary Cloud Infrastructure and Global Broadband network free you to focus on what matters. With Custom Communications solutions and responsive, dedicated support, we constantly evolve to meet your needs. Every day of the week. Centurylink® your link to whats next. Why are house repuretreating, ng, and privately saying theyd rather do nothing on Immigration Reform this year . Doing nothing puts jobs on ice. Forces us to lose out on revenue for roads and schools. And sends a message to millions of dreamers, who study hard and want to serve our country, they might as well dream on. No, nothing wont do. Call House Republicans today. Tell them weve waited long enough pass Immigration Reform. Welcome back. We are watching for the potential of another winter storm after a spring break. Youre going to be talking snow showers through parts of the midwest and the northeast heading into wednesday. Heres tomorrows forecast. You can see back into parts of the west and the plain states, we have the snow. Wintry mix through parts of nebraska and iowa. So minneapolis, snow. Omaha, keeping it rain showers, but that system will be causing some trouble into parts of the northeast. Not just wednesday, but also into our thursday. Thats the day that cities like boston will be getting in on the snow. Also, the wind. So we are not done with winter just yet. As far as accumulations go, heres the early look. Through thursday, looking at 5 to 8 inches through central illinois, indiana, ohio and western p. A. As well. Into the northeast, big winters will be interiors northeast from syracuse to the north of bangor. A foot to a foot and a half of snow possible. Bosto boston,3 to 5 inches. New york starts with rain to transition to snow showers. We could pick up 1 to 3 inches. In the meantime, we have a break tomorrow. Look at the highs, 60 in pittsburgh, 72 in washington. 60 in new york. By wednesday, we cool to around 50 in new york. 44 in boston. Still not bad, but thursday with the snow showers and the wind, well cut those highs just about in half for new york city. We go from 50 to 25. 50 off, not the kind we like to see. 25 the high in boston. 10 in binghamton. 15 in buffalo. We get a Little Spring teaser, but then the next winter storm and the cold comes back in a big way for wednesday and thursday. Becky . All right. Alex, thank you very much. Sure. Its not going to stick. Its not going to stick. You havent seen enough of this winter to think maybe . This right here. Please, i hope youre right. This is springtime. Spring is springing. I hope youre right. Did you see the snow melting over the weekend . I was like, thank you. Its still there, though. Even though it was 55 degrees, theres still a lot of yeah. You know, if you live in buffalo or syracuse, you thats your choice. Thats going to you should know what youre in for. Its going to happen for you, but not down here. Its time. Did you see the big snow pile out back . Theres a bed upstairs thats eventually going to completely melt. I wonder in my own yard when its going to melt. This stuff out here is still pretty high. Dont you people get jet lagged and feel the Daylight Saving time right now . Except for it brings me something to still have light at night. You didnt eat dinner because you didnt realize how late it was. In the fall, winter is coming, but you get the extra hour. Spring forward, fall back. Right now time for the executive edge. Another move in the data wars. At t cutting wireless data charges for individual customers who have no annual Service Contract. The move is compete with tmobile in the u. S. Customers having one smartphone with no annual Service Contract will pay 65 a month instead of 80 a month for the plan to include 2 gigabytes of unlimited data, Unlimited International texting. The latest plan follows price cuts that at t announced for families and customers who share data plans as well as the offer of 200 credit to customer who is switch to its network. Are we supposed to have an opinion on this . Yeah for the consumer lets put this in there. I got to do something. One thing i noticed is a lot of commercials on the family thing. This is an area right for c