ABCNEWS.com
W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 27 — State Department officials say they are close to a final decision to allow American embassy staffs to leave Russia and three other former Soviet states ahead of potential Y2K disruptions.
    

Officials expect the department will announce an “authorized departure” policy for U.S. government employees who work in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus. It is also expected to issue formal travel warnings to Americans traveling or residing in these countries.
    

Until now, the State Department has been reluctant to publicly criticize countries that may not be prepared for Y2K, not wishing to embarrass countries that have lagged far behind.
    

But with the authorized departures and travel warnings, the United States will now be naming names. “This sends an important political signal to those countries,” said an official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
    

There is concern that computer systems that have not been adjusted for the new millennium may crash on Jan. 1, 2000. This is because older computers used only the last two digits to indicate a year. At the turn of the century, computers that aren’t Y2K-ready may mistake “00” in 2000 for 1900, leading to widespread confusion.
    

Last month, the State Department issued carefully worded assessments of Y2K-readiness in every country. But those assessments shied away from either ratings or comparisions.
    

Russia, for example, was said to be “somewhat prepared to deal with the Y2k problem.” The State Department predicted that Y2K disruptions are “likely to occur” in key Russian sectors, including electrical power, heat, telecommunications, transportation, and financial and emergency services.

-- Dog Gone (layinglow@rollover.now), October 28, 1999