In a Valentine's Day exclusive, the Electronic Telegraph reported from London today: "Russia has signed arms deals worth more than 100 million with Saddam Hussein to reinforce Iraq's air defences. The move will pose a serious threat to British and American planes enforcing Iraq's no-fly zone. In a baltant breach of the UN arms embargo, the Russians have agreed to upgrade and overhaul Iraq's ageing squadrons of MiG jet-fighters and restore Iraq's air defences to combat readiness, diplomatic sources in Moscow have told The Telegraph."

Mike

-- flierdude (mkessler0101@sprynet.com), February 14, 1999

Answers

Mike,

It's all about oil, I think. Russia has been a great contributor to Iran/Iraq for decades. Years ago there was some speculation that Russia might invade Iraq in order to secure a seaport in the Gulf.

I imagine the Russians are just as jittery as everyone else about their refining capacity post-Y2K, and are taking steps to ensure that they will have access to oil in the future. I am not so sure, however, that the Russian gov't has given much thought to the long- term effects of deals like this. What good is a ready supply of crude oil if you have no refining capacity left on the other side of the Y2K?

Mike.

-- Michael H. Cumbie (Mikecumbie@aol.com), February 14, 1999.

It could be more Russian extortion. Give us more money or we will make more money by arming Iraq. We of course will give them more money.

-- Bill Solorzano (notaclue@webtv.net), February 14, 1999.

Given that the Russian economy has all but self destructed, and y2k is set to levy the fatal blow (see below), is it any wonder that they are defying the ban and selling arms to the Iraqis?

Russia's Y2K bugs worse than expected

By Reuters Special to CNET News.com

February 10, 1999, 3:30 p.m. PT

Problems converting Russia's aging software to avoid millennium computer glitches are worse than initially thought and could cause critical systems to crash, a U.S. computer expert said today.

Key private-sector computer systems likely will not be modified in time to keep them from crashing with the changeover to 2000, said Vivek Wadhwa, chief executive of Relativity Technologies, which is working with Russia's private sector on the problem.

"What's happening over there is there's still a lot of apathy, there's almost a sense of hopelessness in many cases, and the systems are a lot more bug-ridden than we thought they were," said Wadhwa.

Wadhwa said fewer Russian private-sector systems have been updated than initially believed, and the country will need to invest billions of dollars to avoid losing what he called "mission-critical" systems used to operate the nation's telephones, utilities and airline.

-- a (a@a.a), February 14, 1999.