tavis: we will talk about resident yannick ovitz -- yanukovich on the run in just a minute.in can't seem to get a break. the olympics come there and get all the negative rest. --had a lot of negative rest press. now he is connected to this story in another way. ?hat is this for putin >> two things. one is this customs union that would be comprised of several former soviet republics and for which ukraine was the big prize. without ukraine it only has russia and small countries. ukraine would have been a big addition, but bigger than that is the fear that as ukraine the u.s., european leaders as well, will not only seek to expand the european union, which is no direct threat, but that seems to go with expanding nato, and the russians are worried about a new all those bases on its southern flank. it's especially explosive because russia maintains its own naval base. explosive should ukraine go in the direction of joining nato. you don't need a lot of memory. it was only a few years ago under president george bush that we were pushing for ukrainian fast-track membership in nato.

it has been no signs of yannick ovitz. unico -- yanukovich.the economy has suffered long and catastrophic damage. they are in a pre-default situation. joining us now is a political science professor. thank you for joining us. how dire is the economic position? >> it is very dire. the government holdings have sinceeduced by 13% december. it will be 15% by this time this week. >> they're calling it a default situation. that suggests that this has to be rectified. is the recognition of the is their recognition of the urgency? governmentine thought that they had to sort it. sayinge russians are that that was to the unico which government. gone, is somebody else. they signed an agreement with the european union and that sparked the controversy. will they come up with the cash and the billions that is needed? partyy will come to the if the ukraine is on the right and agrees to certain conditions. they must get the corruption under control. they must make it clear that they are oriented towards europe. ukrainians cannot have their cake and eat it too