dients and irresistible taste, no wonder it's the only one cats ask for by name. what to do about vladimir putin. that question just got a lot more pressing now that crimea voted to side with russia. the white house has justa released its new sanctions. will it be enough? los angeles wakes up to a jolt. a 4.4 magnitude earthquake in the middle of a massive population center. and st. paddy's day snow. the beer may be green but the white is green across the mid-atlantic this morning. where, oh, where is the pot of gold at the end of this winter? in good morning. i'm chris jansing. we begin with day ten and an intense new focus on the pilot and co-pilot of the missing malaysia airlines flight although, in fact, everyone on board is now under investigation

in what is a criminal probe. >> this was not an accident. it was an intention alintentione act to bring down this plane. >> but why and where? the number of countries joining this has more than doubled to 26. this is now the largest search in aviation history. here's where investigators are looking. somewhere along these two sweeping arcs running to the north and south, up to seven hours from the plane's last known radar hit off malaysia's west coast. >> just to give you some context as to the size of that area, you superimpose a picture of the united states in this area between india and malaysia, it almost would be like looking for one person somewhere between new york and california. >> this morning, malaysian airlines said they believe the co-pilot spoke last to ground controllers when he said calmly, all right, good night. but it's not clear if that was

before or after one of the flight data transmitting systems was turned off. let's bring in don gorelli and captain john cox. good morning gentlemen. let's start with what we just learned. they believe the co-pilot was the last one to talk to air traffic controllers. nothing seemed to be amiss. where we stand right now, what strikes you? >> i think the routineness of the first officer says at that point everything was normal. we know shortly thereafter several of the communication devices were either disabled or failed. the transponder, the communication radios and a system known at acars. it's the most important piece of evidence because it continued to function but the data that it would normally up link was stopped and that takes someone with an in-depth knowledge to be able to do that.

>> but the question remains even if that is the case, we don't know whether one of those pilots turned it off of his own volition, right? >> that's true. but just to know that system exists and how it works would require that pretty -- a pretty in-depth knowledge. >> now we have what is a criminal investigation. these two sophisticated communication systems as we said disabled within 40 minutes of takeoff. malaysian authorities, don, searched the home of the pilot and co-pilot. they've spoken to their families and confiscated this pilot's home built flight simulator. what are they looking for here? >> motive. they are looking for any information that can try to link this thing to a motive and who might have been behind the controls when this plane was diverted off of its course. i come from a terrorism background so naturally i hear missing plane. i think of terrorism. but that's one of many scenarios. it could be somebody with health

issues, with other criminal issues. >> when you say health issues, are you talking about potentially suicide by pilot? >> certainly. >> if it continues to fly for sup seven hours, if you want to kill yourself, you are going to start the process by turning off these two systems and then wait seven hours to crash the plane. >> unless you just didn't want somebody to figure out exactly where the remnants of that plane would be. this investigation may take a while to figure out why that -- whoever was in control of the plane did what they did. and that's what investigators are looking for. any kind of a link that will lead them to a possible motive on this thing. >> let's talk a little bit more about the where because if the plane turns south and we should say the countries to the north have searched. they've seen nothing to indicate the plane was picked up anywhere in that area. so if it's south, there's really nothing but ocean. if it's, as we said, suicide by

pilot seems highly unlikely he'd wait for a seven hours. and no phone calls. no texts from the passengers. what does that tell you? >> well, i think that the debris field, when we find it, and i remain confident that we will, that will lead us to the wreckage. and then we will learn the tale of this tragic flight. i think it's important to be very careful we don't overstep the evidence that we have. and that we look carefully. the airplane flew for some period of time. the evidence points it's in the water and that's really about what we know. there are very, very good experts searching countries that have a lot of assets. they have been brought forward. and i think we need to be patient with them and let the professionals do their job and then we start looking for motive. right now, i'm not sure we have

enough information to draw even an educated guess on motive. >> let me ask you if i'm right about this information because the black boxes, obviously, would be critical. my understanding is the pings they give off only cover about 15 miles and we're looking at a search area potentially of up to 300,000 square miles? something insane like that. and then how long are they active? how long will they last? about 30 days? >> the acoustic pingers on the flight data and cockpit voice recorders are designed to work for 30 days and they are a very limited range. we will find wreckage on the ocean floor, i believe, before we actually hear the pingers. once we find the wreckage and we can begin with remotely piloted vehicles or whatever to get a closer look at the wreckage, those pingers will then let us get to the recorders. and those recorders are going to be vital in understanding what

happened here. >> the u.s. has only two fbi agents in kuala lumpur but the united states has an extensive amount of experience in investigating plane crashes. the malaysian government has refused to accept any in-depth u.s. assistance, so why don't they want our help? >> well, i'm not sure that that's necessarily the case. i mean, we do have a very good relationship with the royal malaysian police. i know the fbi has been on the ground. interpol has been involved. in many cases, it's not just the number of agents that are there. it's what they are getting access to and what they are able to do with that information. there may be twoenl fbi people on the ground but, believe me, there's a whole team working in support of those two or three or however many are on the ground. >> when you look and see what people are talking about. the u.s. involvement is one part of it, but i'm sure that you know captain that there are all these websites out there. some of them just sort of random, but some of them people

like yourself who are experienced pilots or people who are very knowledgeable about aviation. and there's one theory that's going around a lot that the person who did this wanted to go undetected and essentially pardon the phrase, fly under the radar. kind of a test run to achieve a greater mission at a later date. does that make any sense to you? >> i don't know. we're in an unprecedented area here. after over 30 years in the aviation accident investigation industry, i have never seen a case like this. so we are forging new ground. the speculation you can read anything. my experience tells me to go carefully. take the evidence and let the evidence lead us one step at a time until we end up determining the cause. one thing to keep in mind, a

passenger aircraft throughout history, since the dawn of the jet age, we have come up with a cause for all of them. we have not not found it. and as a result, i believe that we will find this airplane and they -- and we'll end up learning the cause but it's going to take time. >> back to what you said at the begin chicaning which is about . if they are literally looking at every person on that plane, what are they looking for? >> essentially anything that will try to give clues as to who was behind the controls and, obviously, as the captain pointed out, it looks like there was somebody that, obviously, had a good knowledge of how this -- the aircraft system works and logically speaking, the first -- the pilot and co-pilot are the first people you look at. they have access. they have the knowledge. and then it's going to be basically looking for anything to try to figure out, was this one person acting alone? was it, you know, a plot that was hatched? was it any of the above?

i mean, all options, i think, are still on the table. as the captain pointed out, it's going to take time as the evidence not only from the plane itself but other evidence collected from search warrants, from sbrerkinternet searches, p records. all the evidence of all the individuals on that plane that could have been at the controls at the time. >> don borelli, captain john cox, thanks to both of you. coming up, now that crimea has voted to join russia, what's next? we're hearing about new sanctions just this morning coming out of the white house in the last hour. how else might the president follow through on his threat of consequences? we'll also took a senator just back from ukraine and another republican senator riding high after two big 2016 boosts. why rand paul's chances in the presidential race have never looked better. stay with us. know the feeling? copd includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

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we've just learned the white house is imposing tougher sanctions on a handful of russian government officials. and the entire russian arms industry. president obama's executive order listing seven officials by name, although noticeably it leaves out president vladimir putin. also on the list, ousted ukrainian president viktor yanukovych and a handful of ukrainians in the separatist movement. this comes as president obama is now facing a critical test of what to do about putin. whose end game is still an open question. ian williams joins us live in crimea. and so the question now isn't just about crimea. we know the vote happened overwhelmingly. the secession vote came through. but what is russia going to do next? >> well, that's a big question, chris. parliament behind me has been pretty busy this morning. not only declaring themselves an

independent autonomous state but also formerly asking russia to take in crimea as part of the russian federation with mps from here planning to head up to moscow tomorrow. they've alsoed so they want to bring back the ruble and turb the clocks forward by two hours later this month to russian time. so the board is very much in russia's court. we know that vladimir putin is going to address the nation tomorrow. interesting to see what he has to say and the russian parliament will meet probably before the end of the week to consider that request from crimea. now another bizarre development today, we came down to the square here and found it surrounded by riot police, possibly russian policemen decked out in brand new riot gear. i'm sure if you'd got close enough you might still have been able to see the price label. it does show that russia is very much already in control here which we know on the ground, the soldiers have been occupying here gfor two weeks.

in crimea, celebrations overnight. they say they are now heading back to russia. and the ball very much in the court of vladimir putin who seems intent on annexing this place just as soon as he can, chris. >> ian williams, thank you for that update. i want to bring in republican senator john hoeven. he returned from ukraine just yesterday. >> good morning, chris. >> the president has just imposed the most stringent sanctions against russia since the end of the cold war. we mentioned that there are seven russians -- 11 key officials overall who are the target of these sanctions. in addition, we are told that he is authorized sanctions on russian oligarchs, the so-called cronies if that annexation takes place in the next couple of days. let me get your reaction to the president's actions here. >> that's the right step, and we have to do more. that's something we've been

talking about. both sanctions on russia, economic, diplomatic sanctions of the type that the president is starting to impose. as well as assistance to the ukraines. so this is a step in the right direction. we'll have to do more of this. >> what more do you think will need to have to be done? what would you support? >> well, both between the united states and the european, we're going to have to make sure we have sanctions, expansion of the mcnitsky act. we have a bill we've passed through the committee that will come to the house floor next week that will make sure that for these high-ranking russian officials, putin's circle. the oligarchs that have entered crimea and others that we restrict their travel, travel bans, that we have restrictions on their bank accounts. and at the same time, then we've got to work with the e tu to ma sure we're helping ukraine with loan guarantees. >> you have this unique

perspective just coming back from ukraine. what did you learn that can help us understand the situation as it stands right now. >> people in ukraine are very worried about putin's expansi expansionistic efforts and throughout eastern europe and, obviously, the eu. and we've got to make a strong statement here that we can't allow putin to just invade another sovereign country. orchestrate you know what's not a bona fide election and just take over. this is not something that the world community can allow. and that's why we have to take strong measures. >> let me play for you what a couple of your colleagues said yesterday on this referendum. >> it's a bogus thing. we used to call it plebiscite. it's a done geem. >> sham referendum isn't fooling anyone. >> so it's a done deal. it's not fooling anyone. the president has made it abundantly clear that -- to vladimir putin this is not something we recognize.

having said that, do you think there is still a way to get this under control? what we've been calling an off ramp for vladimir putin, something he would accept? >> well, think about it. you've got a russian invasion of crimea before we have this so-called referendum? they take over the tv stations. boot the people who are there out. put their own people in. start delivering propaganda. of course this isn't bona fide election. and that's why we've got to stand together with the eu, with the world community and send a very strong message through sanctions that will have an impact on russia. >> and do you believe when you say stand together that includes the president and members of congress? some of whom early on in this had been critical of the president. but do you see the congress standing together and the u.s. speaking with one voice? >> that was the point of our trip to ukraine, not only to understand the facts on the ground so we can get these sanctions right, meaning they hurt russia, they help ukraine. they don't impact our companies

but impact russia. and putin. so getting it right, but also sending a strong signal -- this was a large delegation. eight of us, bipartisan, five republicans, three democrats, the congress will pass legislation and work with the administration so that we can stand together with our allies and have a united front against this type of invasion by president putin. >> senator hoeven, it's good talk to you, sir, especially given your return yesterday from ukraine. thank you very much. i want to continue the conversation with "the washington post" and contributor steven clemmons. we just got word that at 10:45, 25 minutes from now, the president will go into the briefing room and have a statement on ukraine. anne, what would we expect to hear from him? >> he's going to explain in his own words what the white house did this moerning, which was to significantly advance the u.s. sanctions against russians and then also against ukrainians,

including the former deposed ukrainian president viktor yanukovych who is now in russia. these sanctions do much the same as sanctions u.s. has announced before. they are freezes on assets abroad and a ban on travel to the united states. but they are very significant for who they target. notion yanukovych himself, one of the best known names in this whole crisis, it names several very senior aides to russian president vladimir putin. not putin himself, but one of the people who is essentially his chief of staff, his chief adviser. >> let's bring this down, steve, to its simplest terms for people who don't necessarily understand how sanctions work. what will this do and what does the u.s. -- what does the president hope it will mean? >> this will hit the gut and the appetite on the private side of individuals that have animated the separatist movement in crimea and created incredible

problems in ukraine. and i think indicated there are four crimeans that have been -- four ukrainians that have been sanctioned under the previous presidential order. seven more russians have been sanctioned as well under a new executive order that the president released today. and this is going to go after their private assets. europe has sanctioned 21 individuals. i don't know at this moment whether these 11 are within the 21 that europe has sanctioned but there will be a number of individuals. they're not going after their corporations but they're going after their private investments, their bank accounts all around the world. >> and though it doesn't name vladimir putin, clearly the message is aimed at vladimir putin. let me play something that senator bob menendez said yesterday. >> putin started a game of russian roulette. i think the united states and the west have to be very clear in their response because he will calculate about how far he can go. >> this is what that's about,

anne. how far will vladimir putin think he can go? >> yes, the big question everyone is asking now is what's next? what's next for putin, for the world and their reaction to him. nobody likes the word containment, but if putin were to stop at whatever action he is willing to take on crimea and the question there is, will russia formally annex crimea or not? were he to stop there he'd likely suffer sanctions. he'd suffer the business losses that steve referred to. but it would presumably stop there as far as the world reaction. if he moves further in other places in ukraine or even beyond ukraine, it's going to be a much, much more difficult thing and a much larger confrontation with the west. >> to that question, steve, another question, does putin know his own end game or is he just making it up as he goes along? >> i think that's a great question. it also needs to be turned on

us. do we know the end game? right now putin has given us trouble on edward snowden, on syria, he's not always been in sync with us on iran. we've seen the really dimnition of rights inside russia on lgbt issues. there's been a great number of fronts and putin seems to be playing on a broader chess board. what if putin tomorrow were to begin to supplying north korea with things that it shouldn't. or take a very divergent action on iran. putin can invent leverage for himself around the world and things that we don't -- that we're not thinking about right now. so our question is, are we just separating from putin for right now and trying to warn him, or are we going through the beginnings of a divorce? if we are divorcing, what are the strategic consequences for the united states? and that would really take us gh back into a cold war mold. it has huge strategic nuclear

weapon stockpiles and just can't be wished away. so i think that end game issue isn't just what putin is doing. it's a question of how far is the united states willing to go in right now is an escalation of what is -- despite how big ukraine seems today, it's a rather small piece of the game between u.s./russia relations globally. >> and also of the president's strategy, anne. a lot of people are seeing this as the most critical test yet of president obama's strategy and going up against adversaries in a post-iraq, post-afghanistan world. is it? >> well, it is in a very important sense. russia is a project that president obama started on very early in his first term. the u.s./russian relations were at a very low point over another flash point, another crisis in georgia. there were a lot of other things that went into that decline but georgia really did it in. and we have had real deficit of communication and cooperation

with russia. and that's something he set out to fix. he did in many respects fix a good bit of it. there has been significant u.s./russian cooperation both in the first and the second term on iran. there's a meeting this week in vienna furthering this attempt for an international deal with iran. a little bit on syria. on arms control, on russia's succession to the wto. many other things that russia wanted and the u.s. helped them to get. what happens to all those partnerships? what happens to obama's attempt to really draw russia in and make it a statesman-like partner with the united states and less of an adversary. looks very much like an adversary now. >> anne gearan, edward stevens. the president expected to come into the press room and talk about breaking news at 10:45. the strongest earthquake in recent years has hit the leaks area this morning.

estimated 4.4. maybe it doesn't sound huge on the richter scale -- we don't use that scale anymore -- but people are talking and tweeting about how it felt. miguel almaguer is live in l.a. for us. some people were probably shaken awake this morning. maybe even you. >> it was certainly a significant jolt. as you mentioned, in the large scale it wasn't a huge earthquake here in los angeles but certainly enough to rattle folks out of bed. 6:25 this morning, about 15 miles from downtown l.a. significant. i was at the gym when the first jolt happened. it was a little bit of a rock and that was followed by a really steady, steady jolt. you are looking at a live picture of l.a.x. no damage in the city. the local fire departments say they are in emergency mode but that there are no problems to report. the folks here say that there are no structural problem grs homes or so significant structural homes for homes or

freeways. no damage to report. that's the good news. but they do remind us twheet flif earthqua that we live in earthquake country. and this was one of those significant earthquakes that happened in the middle of a very populated area so it was a strong 4.4. >> nbc's miguel almaguer, thank you for the update. appreciate it. are you ready for more snow? it's here. suting the federal government down again, making it a white st. patrick's day in d.c. we'll take a check of the forecast coming up. again, 10:45, we'll hear from the president on ukraine. we'll have that for you live. in the nation, we reward safe driving. add vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance and get $100 off your deductible for every year of safe driving. which means you could save... a lot of benjamins. we put members first,

because we don't have shareholders. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side [ mala body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure

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(laughs) im sorry, i have to go. at&t is building you a better network. transferred money from his before larry instantly bank of america savings account to his merrill edge retirement account. before he opened his first hot chocolate stand calling winter an "underserved season". and before he quit his friend's leaf-raking business for "not offering a 401k." larry knew the importance of preparing for retirement. that's why when the time came he counted on merrill edge to streamline his investing and help him plan for the road ahead. that's the power of streamlined connections. that's merrill edge and bank of america. this is the breaking room of the white house. we're expecting the president in 15 minutes. he just imposed sweeping new sanctions. the toughest in the post-cold war era. scheduled at 10:45 eastern time.

about n about 30 minutes right outside our doors at rockefeller center, the country's biggest st. patrick's day parade. only one main sponsor left. for the first time in more than 20 years, the city's mayor is snubbing the parade and the city's council, all over gay rights. i want to bring in aaron karmon and philip bump. not just new york, obviously. boston, the mayor refused to march in the parade. we've seen there that sam adams has pulled out. lgbt groups have been marching since 1990. what happened this year that suddenly this has become a big deal? >> well, i think this has to be seen in the context of the religious freedom bills that really galvanize the nation. the lgbt community has done an

enormous job of organizing and pressuring in particular private businesses which also helped to make those religious freedom bills which look like they would allow private businesses to discriminate against gay people. they made those so unpalatable that political officials fell in line. in this case, mayor bloomberg used to march in this parade despite the fact he disagreed with their policies on gay rights. according to the supreme court they have a constitutional right to exclude gay people from their private event on public space but nonetheless, it's become completely sort of a consensus position that excludeing gay people, that sort of don't ask, don't tell policy is not the values of new york city or of boston. >> so you've seen this movement change in sort of social thinking, but money talks as well. when we were talking about guinness, heineken, sam adams, apple, jpmorgan chase, a lot of corporations that have not been on board with any sort of

discrimination against gays, whether it's here or go back to last month's controversy in arizona. >> i think this is exactly the point. that what is happening is there exists a legal standard by which they are allowed to exclude certain people. so what's happened in the classic tradition of american protest is people have said in that case, i'm going to use the other levers at my disposal. and one of the things that mayor de blassio said is i will join in this protest. we're all going to take a stand. even though you may legally do this, we don't feel it -- >> the ethnic heritage parades in new york city that some of which are from very conservative constituencies like the columbus day parade, the west indian day parade, celebrate israel parade, they do not have this sort of exclusion policy. so you are definitely seeing the culture move in this direction of more inclusiveness. >> let me read for you what boston's lead parade organizer said. the theme of the parade is st.

patrick's day. it's not a sexually oriented parade. all we want to do is have a happy parade. the parade is a day of celebration, not demonstration. and, of course, the organizers of these parades are religious organizations, but are they just sort of pushing up against what has clearly become this sort of vast movement? >> it is a deeply established conservative sense of what it is that they want to have this parade represent from their xhurnity. there's a statement out from some of the organizers in boston. they've been trying to resolve this with gay rights groups and some sort of compromise that can be reached. they called it a trojan horse. they didn't accept this was anything besides them trying to take over the parade. it's a clash of cultures and it's a very traditional conservative culture that's going up against how america has changed over the course of the past ten years. >> philip, erin, thank you. you have a minidocumentary coming up, erin equip inside the new faction of the anti-abortion

movement." that's up on our website. the federal government is closed because of snow. several inches have fallen on the nation's capital this morning bringing the total to about 23 inches for the season. and that's not even the worst of it. some of the mountain areas in the mid-atlantic could see ten inches or more. it's march, right? march 17th? nbc meteorologist dylan dreyer is here with the forecast. isn't spring supposed to start this week? >> spring does start this week. that's a good thing but there's a lot of green on the map, too. we've got heavy rain across the southeast but it's all about the snow in parts of the midwest. and we did end up with quite a few inches of snow in some areas. you can see in parts of areas like washington, d.c., the heaviest of the snow is finally starting to move out. so the worst is over but we end upped with several inches of snow. and it is still lightly snowing right now which just makes it a nuisance at this point. those lighter snow showers will continue throughout the rest of the morning.

hayward, virginia. dulles with ten inches and washington reagan international airport ended up with seven inches of snow. we also had some ice in southwestern virginia and northern north carolina. so we were spared here in new york city. but in washington, d.c., that's the area that got hit hard. look what happens into friday. spring does happen this week. by friday, with the cherry blossom festival getting under way, should get up to 61 degrees. certainly something to look forward to. >> the temperature swings are insane this year. dylan dreyer, thank you so much. and we've got our eyes on the press room at the white house waiting for the president at 10:45. we'll be right back. [ male anno] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. [ m'm... ] great taste. [ tapping ] sounds good. campbell's healthy request. m'm! m'm! good.® i think we both are clean freaks. i used to scrub the floor on my knees.

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[ telephone rings ] [ shirley ] edward jones. this is shirley speaking. how may i help you? oh hey, neill, how are you? how was the trip? [ male announcer ] with nearly 7 million investors... [ shirley ] he's right here. hold on one sec. [ male announcer ] ...you'd expect us to have a highly skilled call center. kevin, neill holley's on line one. ok, great. [ male announcer ] and we do. it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. ♪ investigators in the missing malaysia airlines flight 370 are taking a closer look at the role the plane's pilot and co-pilot may have played in the jet's disappearance. this morning, we know it was the co-pilot who spoke the last words to ground controllers.

calmly saying, all right. good night. in response to the routine handover to their vietnamese counterparts. and instead of the search getting more narrow, ten days in, the search area is larger than ever. nbc's tom costello has been following this from the beginning. >> let's go right to the map and discuss this. we talked about how this developed over the weekend. to begin with, what's happening now is as they continue to look for any sign of this plane along these two arcs, this way and this way. it's a poor job but you can see the point. they are looking to the north here but they now believe it is unlikely the plane is up in this region. why? because all of the countries up in here have all said their radar data does not show the plane came into their air space early saturday morning. so ten days ago. so that means it's -- and then u.s. intelligence has all along believed it's more likely to be down here in the south indian ocean. so what does that mean? it means the australians are moving their assets into the region. i don't have australia on the

map but the point is in the very southern indian ocean, the australians are moving their ships and plane s out into that area looking for any signs of this wreckage, if there is any. they -- there's a good map. so come off of the western side of australia there and they are now searching in that portion of the indian ocean. it's a vast expansive ocean and some areas two to three miles deep and the -- in its entirety, 28 million square miles. but all of those countries to the north, the last known track, either going north or south, those countries to the north have said they don't believe the plane passed over any of their radar facilities. you mentioned the co-pilot having said good night. the last words to air traffic controllers. it's not clear because there's conflicting information from the malaysians about whether the acars system, the system that automatically sends data, transmitting data about the status of the plan, it's now yet again not clear exactly when

that system went dark. so did he say good night before or after the acars system went dark? we don't know. we do know that that last message good night came before the transponders were turned off. if you are confused by all of this at home, you aren't the only ones as we try to dissect exactly what was said, when it was said, by whom. it really has been inconsistent from time to time. the data and the information coming out of that part of the world. >> nbc's tom costello, thank you. >> let's take a look now inside the briefing room. we're expected to hear from the president any minute now. this is going to be about ukraine. new sanctions imposed. let's go to kristen welker at the white house for us. what can you tell us? >> well, chris, earlier today, the white house announced that it was imposing sanctions, travel bans on seven officials in russia. people who are close to russian president vladimir putin.

also four people in ukraine who they associate with this unrest. this comes as the eu has announced sanctions on 21 people. this is in response to that referendum that was passed on sunday in crimea. essentially giving crimea the right to join russia. this is the united states' way of warning russia there will be more action if it moves to annex crimea. that is the next potential step. but, chris, i can tell you there's a broader strategy here which is to warn russia against beefing up its military presence along the ukraine border and potentially trying to go into other parts of ukraine. that's the big concern right now at the white house. that is what president obama wants to prevent from happening. i anticipate we will hear from strong language from president obama. more warnings about more potential costs that could be incurred if russia continues to

move forward in ukraine. but a lot of people skeptical that these sanctions will really have a big enough bite to prevent vladimir putin from continuing to move forward. at least in crimea where it appears as though russia is prepared to annex that region. chris? >> i also want to bring in as you stand by, anne gearan from "the washington post" has rejoined us. the president could come out -- oh, we will get back to you after we hear from the president right now. >> in recent months, as the citizens of ukraine have made their voices heard, we have been guided by a fundamental principle. the future of ukraine must be decided by the people of ukraine. that means ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected and international law must be upheld. and so russia's decision to send troops into crimea has rightly drawn global condemnation.

from the start, the united states has mobilized the international community in support of ukraine. to isolate russia for its actions and to reassure our allies and partners. we saw this international unit i again over the weekend when russia stood alone and the u.n. security council defending its actions in crimea. and as i told president putin yesterday, the referendum in crimea was a clear violation of ukrainian constitutions and international law. and it will not be recognized by the international community. today i'm announcing a series of measures that will continue to increase the costs on russia and on those responsible for what is happening in ukraine. first, as authorized by the executive order i signed two weeks ago, we are imposing sanctions on specific individuals responsible for undermining the sovereignty, territorial integrity and government of ukraine. we're making it clear that there are consequences for their

actions. second, i have signed a new executive order that expands the scope of our sanctions. as an initial step, i am authorizie ining sanctions on rn individuals, entities operating in the arms sector in russia and individuals who provide material support to senior officials of the russian government. and if russia continues to interfere in ukraine, we stand ready to impose further sanctions. third, we're continuing our close consultations with our european partners who today in brussels moved ahead with their own sanctions against russia. tonight, vice president biden departs for europe where he'll meet with the leaders of our nato allies, poland, estonia, latvia and lithuania. and i'd be traveling to europe next week. our message will be clear. as nato allies, we have a solemn commitment to our collective defense and we will uphold this

commitment. fourth, we'll continue to make clear to russia that further provocations will achieve nothing except to further isolate russia and diminish its place in the world. the international community will continue to stand together to oppose any violations of ukrainia's sovereignty and territorial integrity and continued russian military intervention in ukraine will only deepen russia's diplomatic isolation and exact a greater toll on the russian economy. going forward, we can calibrate our response based on whether russia chooses to escalate or de-escalate the situation. now i believe there's still a path to resolve this situation diplomatically. in a way that addresses the interests of both russia and ukraine. that includes russia pulling its forces in crimea back to their bases, supporting the deployment of additional monitors in ukraine and engaging in dialogue with the ukrainian government which has indicated its openness to pursuing constitutional

reform as they move forward towards elections this spring. but throughout this process, we're going to stand firm in our unwavering support for ukraine. as i told prime minister yatsanyuk last week, the united states stands with the people of ukraine and their right to determine their own destiny. we're going to keep working with congress and our international partners to offer ukraine the economic support that it needs to weather this crisis and to improve the daily lives of the ukrainian people. and as we go forward, we'll continue to look at the range of ways we can help our, ukrainian friends achieve their rights and security, prosperity and dignity that they deserve. thanks very much. a >> international law must be upheld, we just heard from the president who outlined what we have been reporting. these new sanctions, the toughest since the end of the cold war.

he said the united states is mobilizing the international community making clear to vladimir putin and to russia that there are consequences for their actions. let me go to anne gearan. we were talking about the president and his determination to try to make this work diplomatically. he also talked about cooperation with the european union. where are we with that and where are we with sort of a global response, western response to vladimir putin? >> you heard the president there say that biden that vice president biden is going to europe tonight and president obama will be traveling there next week. those were long-scheduled trips which originally didn't have much if anything at all, to do with ukraine but now which have been really -- are going to be dominated by the question of a european response to ukraine. what's happened in ukraine and what's happening with russia is of greater moment to moment consequence to the europeans than it is to the united states.

they live next door. they get huge amounts of natural gas from russia, much of which translates to ukraine. they do business in ukraine. they do business with russia. to a larger extent than the united states. so these are economic questions. these are national security questions for the europeans which the united states is trying to help them through. the 21 people named in the european union sanctions list today are identified in that list as something that the united states very much wanted to see. they wanted what the u.s. did in sanctions to be paired with something that the europeans would do. so it didn't look like a u.s.-only action. so i think you saw obama reaching out to the europeans and saying don't worry. we will step with you as we go forward in this. >> so as he lays out what the united states and what the eu is going to do next, also the question that we've been discussing is what vladimir putin is going to do next. is the overriding concern here,

anne, something involving eastern ukraine? >> yes. the overriding concern is what will putin do next, and will he make a further move beyond crimea? there have been some indications that he might. and you -- president obama opened his remarks by condemning the moves of russian forces. that's something the united states is watching very, very carefully. where is putin going to send his forces. in crimea, will he pull forces back to their bases? that was one of obama's demands there. that would go a good long way toward quell somethiing some of international concern. will he move forces beyond crimea which will have the opposite effect. one important thing obama said here today is the question of calibration. and that's, okay, putin if you do more, we will also do more. >> the united states coordinating with europe. european union imposing a new round of sanctions against vladimir putin and russia.

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for more information and savings options, call 1-888-xarelto or visit goxarelto.com. add vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance and get $100 off for every year of safe driving. we put members first. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side good morning. i'm tamron hall. this is "news nation." breaking news from the white house. just minutes ago, president obama announced he's ordered a round of u.s. sanctions on high-ranking russian officials involved in the crisis in the ukraine. >> we are imposing sanctions on specific individuals responsible for undermining the sovereignty, territorial integrity and government of ukraine. we're making it clear that there are consequences for their

actions. if russia continues to interfere in ukraine, we stand ready to impose further sanctions. >> the president's executive order includes two of president vladimir putin's top advisers. will be applied by the treasury department and will involve the freezing of assets and travel bans. the sanctions come just a day after crimean voters overwhelm league voted to secede from ukraine in a referendum. the u.s. has called it illegal. president obama spoke with president putin on the phone after yesterday's vote and told him the u.s. and its allies will never recognize the referendum and warned him the u.s. would react with economic sanctions. some of which we are seeing today. 96% of crimeans voted to secede from ukraine and join russia. but the votes were carried out with heavy russian military presence. joining me now, "time" magazine's chief foreign affairs correspondent michael crowley who recently returned from ukraine. thank you so much for your time here.