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Strategies & Market Trends : Investment in Russia and Eastern Europe

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To: Real Man who wrote (249)	6/29/1998 3:03:00 PM
From: Still Rolling	Read Replies (1) of 1301

Yet another reason to stay out of Russia. Russia Doubts Millennium Bug Can Be Fixed By 2000 By Philippa Fletcher MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia, criticized for being slow to react to the millennium computer bug threat, outlined the measures it was taking but said it doubted the problem could be fully resolved in the time left. The State Telecommunications Committee, assigned to coordinate a program to check computers in state bodies to ensure any dates expressed in two-digits do not cause malfunctions when the century ends, said work began last month. "At the moment, all-round work to resolve the '2000 problem' throughout the state is being carried out in line with a Russian government order from May 30, 1998," it said in a statement. The committee was responding to questions put by Reuters after U.S. defense officials and investors expressed concern Russia was being slow to respond to the threat. Asked if it thought the problem could be resolved on time, the committee said not entirely and cited a software research company saying a final resolution would take half a century. "The Russian State Telecommunications committee considers that the '2000 problem' cannot be resolved entirely in the remaining time," the committee said in a statement. "A final decision will come in 50 years time and will require changing date codes in about 60 million programmed products throughout the world," it added, quoting an agency called Software Productivity Research. U.S. defense officials have issued several warnings of the nightmare scenarios which could ensue if Russian early-warning computers malfunction because they have not been programmed to work properly into the next millennium. They said U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen had offered Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev help to handle the problem and even proposed sharing early-warning information to prevent nuclear weapons being set off by mistake. The American Chamber of Commerce in Russia weighed in earlier this month, saying any delay in tackling the problem could have catastrophic consequences on business in Russia and pledging to help the government sort it out. At a news conference on June 17, they expressed regret that officials from the State Telecommunications Committee had not been there to respond to their concerns. Experts say Russia may face less of a problem than Western nations because it has far fewer computers and because older Soviet computers were designed differently.

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