-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com this is cnn breaking news. >> i'm wolf blitzer in washington. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. we're following breaking news out of the crisis in ukraine. armed gunmen have now forced a united nations envoy out of crimea. this is a photo of the envoy, robert serry, taking refuge at a cafe with a tv reporter after gunmen tried to get him into a car. serry later left for the airport, saying he was happy to leave crimea if it would help reduce tensions. also right now, we're waiting

for the secretary of state of the united states, john kerry, and the russian foreign minis r minister, sergey lavrov, to conclude their talks in paris. we expect that they will be speaking to reporters. we'll have live coverage of that. in the meantime, to cnn's anna coren, joining us from crimea. anna, this u.n. envoy had to leave, leave a coffee shop. it was an ugly scene unfolding. tell us what you know. >> reporter: yeah, an ugly scene indeed, wolf. we understand that robert serry was surrounded by up to 15 armed gunmen. they ordered him to get into a car and head straight to the airport. he resisted. he was then led into a coffee shop and itv reporter james mates was with him, and tweeting in real-time as to what was taking place. so we understand that they were in that coffee shop, not very far from where we are here in

s simferopol. and as you mentioned in your introduction, he agreed to leave, to quit his post here in ukraine. he is, of course, the special envoy to ukraine. quit his post and leave the country to try and deescalate the situation. we don't know why these local militia had such a problem with robert serry. but you would have to assume, these local militia are pro-russian. obviously, whatever robert serry was saying didn't seem to agree with these local militia. so they have ordered him to the airport. he is there now, due to catch his flight out of ukraine. and as we mentioned, try and deescalate the situation, wolf. >> very tense situation. underscored by that incident. i want to get back to you, anna. stand by. in the meantime, the top diplomats for the united states and russia, that would be john kerry and sergey lavrov, huddled

today at the russian ambassador's residence in paris. they're still meeting, apparently, right now. the u.s., britain and ukraine have called for international observers in ukraine. the organization for security cooperation in europe said it would send 35 unarmed military personnel to ukraine at the same time. our own elise labott is traveling with the secretary of state. she is joining us from paris. elise, this is the third meeting these two men have held today. what's secretary kerry's main priority in dealing with sergey lavrov? >> reporter: that's right, wolf. they're just wrapping up their third meeting of the day, and now secretary kerry will be huddling with the french, the german, the british foreign ministers all in an effort to try and get some diplomatic process going. and deescalate the situation. his single sales objective for the russian foreign minister is to get him to sit down with the ukrainian foreign minister. as we know, the ukrainian foreign minister flew with

secretary kerry to kiev last night, waiting all day, wants to sit down with the russian foreign minister, try and get some dialogue going. try and deescalate the situation. but so far, foreign minister lavrov is not biting, wolf. >> so we expect they will come out and hold a joint news conference, or kerry will have his own news conference. do we know? >> reporter: well, secretary kerry's news conference was supposed to start about 15 minutes ago. but he just wrapped up his meeting with foreign minister lavrov and now going over to the french foreign ministry. there is a lot of intense diplomacy, a lot of various machinations of discussions going on, all in an effort to try and get something going. and the fact that he is postponing this press conference and going over to talk to his foreign minister counterparts does signal that something could be going on. there has been a lot of pressure on sergey lavrov today, despite all the tough talk about russia. he's really the man of the hour. everybody courting him to try and sit down with the ukrainian foreign minister, wolf.

>> but as far as we know, that has not happened, right? >> reporter: not yet. ukrainian foreign minister is waiting. there were some reports he was -- he had a 6:00 flight local, which is about noon eastern time. he was going to head to the airport. but secretary kerry and the others said, listen, stick around. see if we can try and get something going. don't know if it will happen, but you know secretary kerry has been often trying to pull things out of a hat. it could be a long night, wolf. >> certainly could be. all right, elise in paris for us. thank you. diplomatic efforts clearly in overdrive right now. trying to find some sort of peaceful resolution to this ukraine crisis. our chief national security correspondent, jim sciutto, monitoring what's going on. and, you know, these diplomats, u.n. envoy basically held there. it getting ugly. but maybe lavrov and kerry, they do have a personal relationship that goes way back. maybe they can come up with something. >> they do. relationship that helped with that chemical weapons deal in

certi syria. you look at the incident with the u.n. envoy and other skirmishes. you remember yesterday we saw ukrainian and russian soldiers go nose to nose and shots fired in the air. this is why you need diplomacy now. you need the sides talking to each other, to deescalate. because you have a very volatile mix of guys with guns on the ground there, and emotions that have been stoked up by russian propaganda. and remember, these gangs, these ununiformed gangs, kind of pro-russian militias, there is a russian hand in that. that's a tool of russian power on the ground there. this is not happening by accident. those guys coming together. and you know, we've talked about this before. once you get that genie out of the bottle, it's hard to put it back in. they really have to find a way forward. there was another incident today, worrisome, as well, there were some monitors coming from the osce into ukraine, and we heard that they were turned around. still state department still trying to figure out who turned them around. but remember, russia is asking for monitors on the ground. they want to have some, you know -- they want to basically

corroborate their charge that ethnic russians are under threat. so you need the diplomacy, you need the talking to happen now. and you needy escalation quickly. >> and the world will be anxious to hear what kerry says. once he does go before the microphones over there ask starts speaking, whether it's going to be positive or negative, so much will depend on what's happening in this critical meeting right now. >> no question. and at the same time, you have this good cop/bad cop going on. because you have the diplomatic efforts, kerry in paris, but you also have military moves now by the u.s., putting more planes in the baltic region up there, nato allies extending an air mission in poland, another nato ally. that's the pressure. and financial pressure, as well. a vote tomorrow on the senate foreign relations committee on sanctions against russian banks. >> world markets watching what kerry has to say. we'll stand by for his statement. all right. don't go too far away, jim sciutto reporting. russian lawmakers are warning there will be financial payback if the west imposes economic sanctions on moscow. they're drafting a law right now that would allow authorities to confiscate assets of u.s. and

european companies, including property and financial accounts. our own phil black is covering all of this for us. he's in moscow. so if russia were -- this is still a huge if. if russia were to seize the assets of these u.s. and european international companies, what would the financial impact, especially in europe, be? >> reporter: well, in europe, it could be quite significant, wolf. europe is russia's european union, russia's biggest trading partner. so a lot of business going both ways. these two economies are heavily interconnected. there is a lot of russian money in european financial centers. so in the event that russia were to do this, it could in effect have quite a significant impact. and there's this other russian potential leverage that hangs over europe, as well, which, of course, is russian oil and gas, which europe is still heavily dependent on. all of these factors together could be why europe in

particular seems a little less willing, a little less gung ho when it comes to the idea of hitting russian quickly with heavy economic sanctions, wolf. >> so the tension in moscow clearly a palpable, as well. let's see what happens. phil, we'll check back with you. we're waiting for the secretary of state, john kerry, to emerge from his meeting with the russian foreign, sergey lavrov. we expect kerry to make a statement. will it be positive? will it be negative? we're also waiting for more information on the breaking news. a united nations envoy in ukraine, in crimea specifically. there you see him right there. robert serry. he was detained. we'll tell you what's going on. stay with us. [ man ] look how beautiful it is.

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this is cnn breaking news. >> the special united nations envoy to ukraine, robert serry, was held by armed gunmen just a little while ago. we're getting more information. let's bring in our senior u.n. correspondent, richard roth. what are you learning about what happened, richard? >> wolf, robert serry, u.n. envoy for ukraine, appears to be a wanted or hounded man right now on the streets of crimea. he had recently arrived there following a logistical problem several days ago to get there. and he visited a naval base, according to senior u.n. officials, and then upon exiting that area, seemingly alone, with no security, armed men, 10 to 15

in number, some wearing military fatigues, surrounded him, and told him he had to leave the country, the area, immediately and go to the airport. he sat in his car, he refused to go to the airport. they blocked the car. he eventually exited, walked the streets, got to a coffee shop, called u.n. deputy secretary general jan eliasson and told him of the situation. he was described by eliasson as shaken up. there are media reports that he is blockaded and not able to leave. the u.n. has not given any information on the level of the threat. this may be the best place for him to simply hang out. there are reports that he was ending his mission. the u.n. will not confirm he has decided it's best to leave crimea. wolf. >> did the deputy secretary general, jan eliasson, did he say who was responsible for

detaining him for trying to hold him? were these russian troops, were these pro-russian troops, do we know if they were thugs? did he give a description of who these people were? >> he asked robert serry. serry was unable to describe in detail, some in military fatigues. he did not describe the voices, whether there were accents. didn't know, but they were quite menacing. u.n. observers, u.n. envoys sometimes bear the brunt. they're the early century sometimes sent in to hostile situations to see if they can lay the ground work diplomatly for talks, negotiations, international monitors. sometimes they're kind of the actor in an early scene in a "star wars" or "star trek" the ones who suddenly disappear, first sent into harm's way. serry may go to kiev to brief the deputy secretary general of the u.n. on what's happening. >> richard roth at the u.n. if you get more information, let us know.

angela stent is here, professor and russia expert at georgetown university here in washington, served in the government in various -- what do you make of this -- they detained in effect that he's holed up in a coffee shop right now, the special u.n. envoy for ukraine. he's in crimea, which, of course, is part of ukraine. >> oh, yeah. this is a very dangerous situation. one thing we have seen right from the beginning, from the first occupation of crimea last week is the deliberate ambiguity. you don't know who works for whom, nobody has insignias, and then each side accuses the other of being provocative. but it really is a highly dangerous situation. and it shows real disrespect for the united nations and calls into question this idea of an off-ramp possibility of having observers there calm the situation down. >> you served in the intelligence community in the united states. if you're getting this kind of information, does it have the fingerprints of russia? would russia be engaged in this kind of murky activity, individuals wearing uniforms, we're not exactly sure if they were russias, pro-russia,

ukraines? does it have the fingerprints of russia? >> i would have to have more information than i have now. but certainly one of the difficulties always is figuring out who is doing whom and who is who. and, again, it's didn'tly obscured like that, so you can't say for certain. and that is, you know -- that's what the russians, i think, and the pro-russian people in crimea are using to put people off their guard. >> you saw mike rogers, chairman of the house intelligence committee, says he wants to do a review now, because he suspects the u.s. intelligence community failed to understand what was going on, did not anticipate that russia would actually move troops into crimea, which is part of ukraine. they're doing a postmortem, which they presumably should do. but i wonder if you want to comment on that. >> well, they always do postmortems after things like that. i think nobody quite saw the revolution coming in kiev, and then, you know, it's only february 21st, there was an agreement signed between the former president -- i guess he is now yanukovych, and the

europeans and next day he flees. he shows up in russia. you have to play catch-up. but the idea that the russians could put pressure on crimea. people have always thought about there were times in the 1990s when it looked as if crimea was going to try and secede. so the principle has always been there, but it's always the timing. you never know if it's going to actually happen. >> if the intelligence community misread it, that's significant. i remember the first gulf war, when the intelligence community didn't appreciate saddam hussein was about to invade kuwait, they misread his deployment of troops in 2008, in georgia. did the u.s. intelligence community anticipate russia would move troops into georgia? >> well, i would just say that the scenario for what happened in august 2008 had been thought about before. whether they realized it was going to happen at that time, i don't know. i wasn't in the government then. but again, people have thought about these eventuallitieevent. >> angela, thanks very much for

coming in. angela stent, always helping us in understanding russia and ukraine. just ahead this hour, why didn't the u.s. know about putin's intentions in ukraine before it reached a crisis point? is that true? and as we just mentioned, it's a question some members of congress want answered. we have some tense moments today up on capitol hill. you're going to see the extreme. stand by for that. and up next, hillary clinton reportedly comparing the russian president to adolf hitler. and a u.s. senator says he agrees. marge: you know, there's a more enjoyable way to get your fiber. try phillips fiber good gummies. they're delicious, and a good source of fiber to help support regularity. wife: mmmm husband: these are good! marge: the tasty side of fiber. from phillips.

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state, hillary clinton, reportedly comparing vladimir putin's actions in ukraine to those of adolf hitler in the 1930s. hillary clinton was speaking at a private fund-raiser in california. according to the long beach press telegraph, she said this, and i'm quoting. now, if this sounds familiar, it's what hitler did back in the '30s. all the germans, the ethnic germans in places like czech low slovakia. hitler kept saying they're not being treated right, i must go and protect my people. and that's what's gotten everybody so nervous. our senior is political correspondent, brianna keilar, watching this. she hasn't clarified those comments yet, because there is a lot of buzz out there. why putin may be bad, but he's not hitler. >> well, and i think what she was trying to do was add some context and talk about how this was something that nazi germany, sort of did or draw similarity. not in the totality of hitler. i have talked with some democrats and republicans who say, you know, she may have some sort of point, but you invoke

hitler, you invoke nazi germany and you're really sort of stepping on the third rail of rhetoric. her representatives have not addressed this. they're not making a comment on this. but she will be speaking, lecturing, actually, to thousands of people, including 1,800 students at ucla here in a couple hours. so if she does feel a need to do some clean-up here, then she certainly has a venue to do that here today. >> yeah, because usually you can make comparisons. once you start comparing people or states to nazis and to hitler, that's almost like a rookie mistake. you don't necessarily expect that from the former secretary of state. >> yeah. and i think some democrats and some republicans thought that it wasn't particularly sophisticated. i mean, when you look at someone like hillary clinton, she is normally -- this would be out of character for her if this wasn't something that she really thought about. she is normally pretty careful. you know, she doesn't sort of i think throw out these things

that kind of explode all of the time. she doesn't do that. she is pretty careful. but the other point we should make is this was an off the record campaign event or not campaign event, off the record fund-raiser, i should say, closed to the press. but you and i know, and certainly hillary clinton knows and all of those close to her know, there is really no such thing as off the record when you're talking to 300 people at a fund-raiser. mitt romney certainly learned that during the campaign in 2008 when he made his very damaging 47% remark. >> yeah. when you have that many people in a room with cell phones and iphones and everything else, you know, there's a lot of -- and a reporter from the "long beach" paper who was there. >> exactly. they always get in there. >> obviously. all right. mccain. john mccain, he tweeted this. i must say, he was supporting hillary clinton. he tweeted, she is right on this comparison. hillary clinton compares putin action in ukraine to adolph hitler's in nazi germany. so he's giving her some support. >> he's giving her some support. and is so there are a number of things at play here. this is one of the other things,

is hillary clinton, by making these remarks, distances herself from president obama. and from secretary of state kerry. she has traditionally been more hawkish when it comes to foreign policy. these are certainly hawkish or harsh remarks. and so you see her in line more with someone like john mccain than with the obama administration in these comments. is that on purpose? that's really the question. does this help her ultimately to be sort of aligned more in that way to create some daylight, to distance herself? but i think the general consensus that i'm hearing is, when you do invoke hitler, when you do invoke nazi germany, you're really letting your message kind of out of your control. if it's somewhat nuanced, which her argument is, you're going to lose the nuance, people just sort of hear that connection to nazi germany and hitler. >> and remember, she is the one who pressed that reset button at the beginning of the -- with sergey lavrov, they were going to reset u.s./russian relations and hasn't exactly worked out. >> no, suspect she will face

criticism for that, and certainly has her side consider throwing her hat in the ring and is she does want to obviously show the time she spent at the state department as a show of her leadership. it's going to come under criticism. >> former senator. they always say in capitol hill, they can revise and amend their remarks. and let's see if she does. >> yep. we'll see. >> all right, brianna, thanks very much. the defense secretary, chuck hagel in the hot seat on capitol hill today. some lawmakers asking why the u.s. didn't know about vladimir putin's plans in ukraine before he carried them out. and as the crises in ukraine simmers, russia has threatened to freeze western assets if sanctions are imposed by the u.s. and other western powers. we're taking a closer look at the money involved in all of this. that's coming up. i'm beth... and i'm michelle. and we own the paper cottage. it's a stationery and gifts store. anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online

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lavrov. he rushed over to meet with france's more than minister, possibly -- repeat possibly, a sign of progress in his talks with lavrov. we're watching that very, very closely. back here in washington, lawmakers are asking why the u.s. apparently didn't know that putin was planning to intervene in ukraine ahead of time. our chief national security correspondent, jim sciutto, once again, with us. what do we know about this? there seems to be some serious back and forth, what the u.s. knew and didn't know. >> no question. you remember last week administration officials were telling cnn it was not their assessment that the russians were going to go in numbers. ask then lo and behold we see russian troops on the ground there, and this has sparked an angry reaction from lawmakers, calling for an inquiry. today you saw senator john mccain taking it to defense secretary chuck hagel. here's what he had to say. >> the fact is, mr. secretary, it was not predicted by our intelligence, and it's already

been well-known, which is another massive failure, because of our misreading, total misreading of the intentions of vladimir putin. >> early last week, we were well aware of the threats. when i was in nato, again, there was a meeting specifically about the threat with the nato ukraine commission. so this wasn't sudden or new that we didn't know what was going on. >> another thing you'll hear from officials is that at the end of the day, vladimir putin is unpredictable. so it might be impossible to have known exactly what he was going to do. >> apparently they misread in 2008 when he moved troops into georgia under similar circumstances. so what's the cia saying about this? >> well, i've talked to the cia and also members of the house intelligence committee who read that intelligence last week, read the reports. what the cia says is, listen, we presented a number of scenarios in this, and they released a statement, pushing -- they're pushing back hard on this saying since the beginning of political

unrest in ukraine, the cia has regularly updated policymakers to make sure they have an accurately and timely picture of the crisis. possible scenarios for russian military intervention in ukraine. any suggestion otherwise is flat wrong. so very strong pushback there. now, other sources have told me that among the scenarios that were discussed were things like we saw there. not necessarily a massive movement of troops across the border, but the ideas of troops that were already in those bases, in crimea, moving off the base and out into ukrainian territory, as well as the use of these ununiformed, unofficial armed gas tax gangs as a tool of power and that's what we saw in action today, forcing the u.n. official out. the other point i would make is this. in my old job when i had a security clearance that i've read classified reports, i think that people have this impression they're black and white. they say x is going to happen tomorrow in y location. very rarely or never are they really that way. they're dealing with imperfect intelligence that they pieced together, kind of like we do as

reporters, though with much better tools. which they piece together ask say here is our best assessment of possible things that might happen. in this situation, you throw in the wild card, which is vladimir putin. and representative adam schiff, on the house intelligence committee saying, listen, with him, he could have made that decision last minute so no one could have predicted it. that's their defense. but listen, the bottom line is, they were caught off guard. >> i read an interesting report on this in the "wall street journal" today. they said, and we're going to double-check, but the "wall street journal" said the d.o.d. got it wrong, cia got to right -- got it more right than wrong. d.o.d. got it more wrong than right. there seemed to be a split between the department of defense analysis and cia's analysis. >> that's one read. i did ask someone about that and they said in actuality the two reports were not vastly different. but, you know, you read two intelligence reports, they're always going to be a little different. >> excellent point. don't go too far away.

up next, if sanctions are imposed against russia, how will world markets be affected? we're going to talk with the ceo of goldman sachs. lloyd blankfein here will discuss putin and russia's money. and angela merkel emerges as a major player in resolving this crises. we'll take a look at the dynamic between angela merkel and vladimir putin. en it's donut fre office i use my citi thankyou card to get two times the points at the coffee shop. which will help me get to miami...and they'll be stuck at the cube farm. the citi thankyou preferred card. now earn two times the points on dining out with no annual fee. go to citi.com/thankyoucards. yeah... try new alka seltzer fruit chews. they work fast on heartburn and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. enjoy the relief!

this is cnn breaking news. and it's just coming into cnn. nato now saying its entire relationship with russia is under review. this follows a meeting between the nato and russian top officials. in a statement, nato secretary general said the organization has, quote, the entire range of nato/russia cooperation under

review. see what happens on that front. a sigh of relief for global markets today as some of the dust settles. the dow barely budged out of the opening bell. it's down 37, almost 38 points. all this coming after two days of very volatile days when the market first plunged over the news out in ukraine and then rebounded with its biggest gain of the year yesterday. we're watching wall street closely. as the global markets are increasingly connected, what effects one could affect all, how would that affect financial markets around the world? and lloyd blank blankfein is joining us now, ceo of goldman sachs. thanks for coming in. how worried are you about the economic ramifications of this crisis right now between the echt ucht, the u.s. on one side, russian on the other over the ukraine? >> right now it seems to be stabilizing, but it could get --

it could get severe. we saw an indication a couple days ago when you saw the consequences to the international markets when there was some idea that this could be spiralling out of hand. now that it's calmed down, you saw the reaction of the markets was not only to stabilize, but to recover. i think that's an indication of where it could go from here, depending on how bad it gets. >> because if there were to be economic sanctions, there is no certainty there will be, because a lot of the european countries are reluctant. but those sanctions, they could be pretty painful for europe and for russia. >> well, sanctions, you know, actions invite counter reactions. and so i'm sure if one side to this does something, domestic -- certainly domestic policy requires the other side to do something back. and you can get an accelerating, very vicious circle. >> because the russian parliament over there already drafting legislation that would confiscate international businesses, gm has a big plant and russia, coca-cola. there have a lot of european

companies that have made major investments in russia. and if that would happen, who knows what the next step would be. >> there are a lot of considerations driving people's activities here. and i'm not suggesting that markets and the economics should trump those other very, very important civil and social issues. i just want to make sure that people understand the context and how severe those economic issues would be. >> are we facing a little roller coaster now with the markets? one day they really collapse, next day they make a dramatic rebound. should we anticipate that over the next few days is that correct weeks. >> i think so. the markets are always looking for a focus. they found a focus in this. don't forget, there's a lot of fragility to the markets, even though we're in a recovery, the recovery is slow. it's a little bit -- has been ambiguous. you can see the economic numbers that have been coming out, have not really -- have been good, but not confirming the kind of trajectory we were hoping for this year. and so i think anything that causes it to go one way or the other across the tipping point can have an extreme effect. >> goldman sachs, i assume you

have investments in -- you deal with russia, too, right? >> sure we do. skpnks so what are the impacts on goldman sachs? >> well, we are always navigating situations that are going on like this. our role at the end of the day, we don't make policy as experts. we are -- we always -- in fact, we have the duty to just advise people what the consequence of certain policies would be. and so, again, the economic -- the economic consequences of any policy decisions, vis-a-vis russia don't trump, but they will be -- they'll be important consequences, and we're advising what those would be. >> yeah, it's a tense situation. let's talk about why you're in washington. >> sure. >> you've got an important project for years goldman sachs has been involved in a program called 10,000 women. i'm very familiar with what 10,000 -- you help women in developing countries around the world. but now you're about to partner with the world bank and help, what, 100,000 women in developing countries? >> sure. starting about six years ago, we embarked on a program that provided effectively business

education, mentoring, really classroom work, reviewing business plans, on a very, very focused basis. the theme was 10,000 women. at the time it was very aspirational to get to 10,000 women. >> and you did that. >> with he did. we operate in 40 countries around the world. and we're taking women who really have had -- people who were already in business. so these aren't people who were just aspiring to start a business, but people who were in a business and we thought if you add advice, if you ad business education, if you gave them access to capital, the ability to apply for capital, that they could drive their business. and it was a great place to invest a dollar, because the return from women generally underinvested in, in the world economy, that return on a dollar investment in those kinds of businesses run by business would have the most dramatic effect in terms of economic growth, but also in terms of contribution to community, to family. >> it would create a lot of jobs in their communities. >> yes, it would.

>> and now you have taken the next step with the world bank and heading over to the white house. >> right. so having confirmed the value of the program and the effect -- and by the way, we measured the heck out of this investment, as we do any other investment that we make, and saw how much productivity, how much jobs, how much gdp was contributed. we're going to go way past 10,000 women in terms of the program, but we're also adding in conjunction with a very important partner, a financing proposing whereby we help create a pool of capital that these women and other women who have businesses can apply for. and our partner, of course, is the world bank. and we're putting in $50 million. the world bank is putting in $100 million initially. we're going to go out and raise and have some confidence that this will occur. a total of $600 million. and it will become a pool of dollars that will be recycled into whipomen's businesses arou the world. and by the way, i say recycled, because they almost always pay back, because women have a great track record of returning their

investments. >> good luck, and thanks very much for what you're doing. really appreciate it. >> thank you very much, wolf. >> lloyd blankfein. appreciate it. >> thank you. up next, the woman between president obama and president putin. how germany's angela merkel is playing a pivotalal role right now, trying to resolve this ukraine crisis. we're going to examine the dynamics of her relationship with the russian president. (music) defiance is in our bones. defiance never grows old. citracal maximum. calcium citrate plus d. highly soluble, easily absorbed.

there's a famous quote from the former british prime minister, margaret thatcher. the quote is this. if you want something said, ask a man. if you want something done, ask a woman. and a woman is now emerging as a major player in the crisis in ukraine. we're talking about the german chancellor, angela merkel. brian todd is with us with more on this part of the story. she is a very significant player. >> very significant, wolf. she is seen now as increasingly maybe the person who could be

the most central to resolving this crisis. her diplomats are the ones pushing many of the diplomatic initiatives that are actually taking some traction right now with ukraine. germany has huge economic leverage with russia. they are a huge trading partner with russia. they buy about a third of their natural gas from russia. they export technology in cars to russia. it is a huge relationship. vladimir putin certainly does not want to see that, you know, take a bad turn at this point. but also, there is a real personal dynamic between angela merkel and vladimir putin. where putin really does respect her. she is a tough negotiator. she is a very pragmatic person, does not she also has a great dynamic. it's in her political dna. she grew up in east germany. vladimir putin was stationed in russia as an officer. he speaks fluent german and she speaks russian. they can talk directly where

obama and putin can't do that. there is a strong dynamic and the official said if they are not friends, he respects her a great deal for her toughness. >> there is a famous story about when he went to a meeting with her, putin brought a big dog to the meeting. >> he brought this big dog. it speaks to her toughness. she has a fear of dogs. she especially fears big dogs. an incident in her childhood. putin knew that and to test her measure, he brought this huge dog. he kept the dog there and she was terrified. she couldn't concentrate, but kept negotiating and department show fear once because she didn't want to show weakness. it could be the central moment in him taking her measure and thinking wow, this is a tough woman. i can deal with her.

>> a tough cookie. the most powerful woman in the world. >> probably is. >> the chair of the federal reserve is considered one of the most powerful, but angela merkel is clearly up there. good report. things got heated on capitol hill and clashed on whether the irs targeted people based on political beliefs. s ] [ male announcer ] you may be an allergy muddler. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. love the air. [ sneezes ]

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an extraordinary exchange on capitol hill and the house hearing. all about whether they had grip seeking status and extra

screening and they claim it was politically motivated. joe johns is here and you and i have covered it and it's not every day you see a chairman or a ranking member arguing like this. >> it isn't and it got ugly. the battle over certain groups like tea partiers are an open wound between republicans and democrats. the top two members of the house committee on oversight and reform reopened the divide in public for all to see in the raw exchange that almost never happens in front of a camera. it was pure junk yard politics. darrell issa kicked it off by forcing lois learner to come before the meeting and invoke her right to refuse to testify even though she had done it weeks before. you seeking the delay some.

>> i respectfully exercise the fifth amendment rights and decline to answer the question. >> issa declined to adjourn the meeting. >> i see no point in going further and have no expect she will cooperate with the kmo committee. >> elijah cummings was not having it. >> you cannot run a committee like this. you cannot do this. we are better than that has a country and as a committee. i asked for a few minutes on that. >> what are followed was a display on how much these guys don't like each other. >> i wanted to ask a question. >> we are free leave. the gentlemen may ask his question. >> they are smling for the microphones to be turned off and cummings to be heard and he was by the microphones attached to the cameras in the room. >> if you will sit down and allow me to ask the questions, i

am a member of the congress of the united states of america. i am tired of this. >> issa said this may mean it hit a brick wall. >> we may have gotten to the bottom of it. had she been willing to explain the e-mails provided then we could have perhaps brought this to a close. without that it may dead end. >> the only way we will find out for sure if if she is held in contempt of congress and goes to a judge who gets to decide that. her attorneys think she is protected and chairman issa thinks she gave a statement saying she didn't do anything wrong and refused to answer questions, she is no longer

protected. >> they knew she was not going to testify. >> in law school, they teach that bringing people out again and again and again to do this is basically humiliation and public theater. >> but put pressure on her to cooperate to provide testimony and call her back and let her know it's pure theater. >> it is pure theater and something to apply pressure. >> a graduate of the american university here in washington, d.c. >> they train a lot of people there. thanks very much. that's it for me.

thanks very much for watching. i will be back at 5:00 eastern and we will have a special report on the crisis that is unfolding in ukraine. stand by. expected here shortly from the secretary of state, john kerry. in the meantime, newsroom with brianna keilar starts now. >> i'm brianna keilar with baldwin. we just learned that secretary of state john kerry will speak assignment this hour. this is after the meeting with the russian foreign minster. when he starts, we will bring you that live. united nations envoy agreed to lead the region after being threatened by a group of armed men who wanted him in a car. this as a solution to deescalate the growing tension me