boris yeltsin stunned the world, announcing he was resigning effective immediately. yeltsin named then prime minister vladimir putin -- sound familiar? as acting president. >>> there is only a small window of opportunity to get things done in a president's second term. and with the white house and congress focused exclusively on the fiscal cliff, what does it all mean for president obama's second term agenda? the president laid out some of his goals on sunday on "meet the press." >> there are a couple of things that we need to get done. i've said that fixing our broken immigration system is a top priority. the second thing that we've got to do is to stabilize the economy and make sure it's growing. number three, you know, we've get a huge opportunity around energy. we are producing more energy and america can become an energy exporter. but the most immediate thing i've got to do, starting on january 1st, if congress doesn't act before the end of the year, is make sure that taxes are not going up on middle class families. >> joining me now, former spokesman for the de

and boris yeltsin of buried. the grave of stalin's wife and alexander's grandmother. is also here. do you know the story of the monument and do you know why her hand is about position. deal with a very talented sculptor made this monument. and that's how he depicted the hand of someone who takes their own life. on the night of november the ninth one thousand nine hundred thirty two stalin second wife additional island we have shot herself after a fight with. stalin did not attend the theater. i think she had no other way out yet and there was no way she could escape stalin as knowledge of who died on that with him she knew what a blow it was going to be for him yet to most of that of that's why she did it i think that he did have a sense of guilt on the will it may have blamed the circumstances on her nature. but he certainly did have a sense of indirect guilt with. the man who was said to have a heart of steel hardened even more just a few years later the country was swept by a wave of repression taking willetts the old bolsheviks the cream of the intelligentsia generals of the ar

yeltsin are buried. the grave of stalin's wife and alexander's grandmother. is also here. i would need to you know the story of the monuments and do you know why her hand is about position at the deal of a very talented sculptor should make this monument. that's how he depicted the hound of someone who takes their own life. on the night of november ninth nineteen thirty two stalin second wife alone we have shot herself after a fight with us but. stalin did not attend the theater. i think she had no other way i know it's there was no way she could escape stalin was not on the list and she knew what a blow it was going to be for him yet though most of sort of that's why she did it i think but he did have a sense of guilt in the will it may have blamed the circumstances on her nature and the but he certainly did have a sense of indirect guilt in them going to. the man who was said to have a heart of steel hardened even more just a few years later the country was swept by a wave of repression taking willetts

. >> i think boris yeltsin at the opec got hit -- >> his tweets or pictures -- >> i'm not sure why he got caught in the zip wire. >> right. right. and him at the opening ceremonies dancing awkwardly. >> him -- him at the opening ceremony got a huge amount of response. >> as it should. we want to know what your favorite tweet, hash tag, or tui tweet, pic -- i hate myself for those terms. get in touch by e-mail, worldwide@cnbc.com. you can also tweet us, @cnbcwex. >>> ahead, north korea held a rocket launch but the international community is hardly impressed. we'll have reaction in a few minutes. >>> welcome back to "worldwide exchange." here are the top three stories trending at cnbc.com -- which chinese company will overtick amazon as the world's largest retailer by 2016? find out details on our web site. >>> and if you're looking for the dream job, what latest survey results have to say about the best place to work in 2013. right here, isn't it? cnbc.com reveals growing fears on wall street over washington in action and what it could mean for the u.s. economy. >> yes, washington in a

and finally, just sort of more innocent mistakes, if you look at an example in the 1980's, boris yeltsin, the president of russia, the norwegians had a zero weather rocket that they launched in the direction of russia. then notify the russians, but this time the notification got lost in the mail. the russian generals came and said, look, apparently somebody has lost something in us across our horizon. this is an american nuclear attack you have to miss the launch or russia will be obliterated with no shots back. thankfully was sober that date. relations were good between the u.s. and the soviet union. he said to me you know, it can't be the americans attacking. when you talk about the u.s. and iran, is drolen iran, flight times, the attention, the chances of something going wrong , the escalation ending in disaster, that much higher. finally, you also have to be concerned about iran with a nuclear umbrella. oh, well, being more responsive. actually, history argues otherwise. if you look at pakistan, they became much more aggressive after they got. they started attacking in india knowing

boris yeltsin was president of russia. the norwegians had it with the rocket. the launch a whether rocket. the notification got lost in the mail. the russian generals came into yeltsin and said, someone has launched something at us across the far horizon. if this is an american nuclear attack, you have two minutes to launch or russia will be obliterated with no shots back. yeltsin and thankfully was sober that day, relations were good between the u.s. and soviet union and he said, it cannot be the americans attacking. when we talk about the u.s. iran it, israel and iran, a shorter flight times, more attention -- the chances of something going wrong are that much higher. you also have to be concerned about iran with a nuclear umbrella. people say, iran will be more responsive. if you look at pakistan, they became much more aggressive after they got nuclear weapons. they started attacking in india, knowing that the indians wanted to avoid getting into a nuclear exchange. if you have nukes and you're more aggressive than the other guy, you could go further than yo