Funny how these stories just appeared the day after a post in TB2K. Three different articles on how ready the Russkies are. Duh. Not buying it, in fact the louder they proclaim it, the more nervous I get.

Argument 1. They're already FUBAR, so it won't matter. Logic: driving a tanker truck full of gasoline into a burning house won't matter to the inhabitants, because their house is already ablaze.

For educational use only:

Millennium bug woes? Russians already have them By Elizabeth Piper MOSCOW, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Russians already live with the everyday woes which Western countries fear might hit them at the start of the new millennium, a U.S. government aid official said on Wednesday. Russian authorities have said the vast nation will not suffer computer chaos after the clock strikes midnight on December 31, promising that citizens would experience only small changes in their lives. "Russia already lives in a situation which Western experts have described as the most deplorable results of the 'Problem 2000'," Andrei Barkin, project manager at the Y2K resource centre of government agency USAID, told a news conference. Many Russians already battle with an unreliable telephone system in which calls often fail, while power cuts and hot water shortages are common in some far-flung regions. These are the type of problems which many other governments are trying to prevent after December 31 when the millennium bug

Argument number two: Everything is ready and even if it's not, we don't need energy to run the grid. This is so sad, these people are gonna freeze to death, but at least they'll be comforted knowing some asshole is watching the rollover. Duh.

Russian energy sector says ready to meet Y2K MOSCOW, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Russia's fuel and energy sector does not expect serious disruptions related to the year 2000 problem, officials of the national power grid UES and the Fuel and Energy Ministry told a briefing on Wednesday. "We cannot give you a 100 percent guarantee that all the systems will work smoothly at the critical date, but even if some machinery is affected, it will not influence the whole technical process," a deputy chief executive of UES said. Alexander Remezov said that the company's systems were 95 percent ready to meet the so called millennium bug, a problem which may cause disruptions in some computers unable to recognize the 2000 date. "We can say with certainty that the risks of possible interruptions will be minimal," said Dmitry Banko, deputy head of the information and analysis department at the Fuel and Energy Ministry. He said that modernisation of computers in the sector had already cost a total of $2.5 billion roubles ($95 million), but the ministry would finalise data on its readiness for the millennium bug in December. "Some oil companies will only have their new computers installed in the course of November," Banko said. UES's Remezov said the company had invested 700 million roubles ($27 million) to replace 17,000 of its 50,000 computers and to upgrade the same number. The remaining computers are not vital for the system, so some of them would be switched off at the end of the year and in some the date would be changed manually, he said. Remezov said the company was coordinating its efforts with partners in neighbouring countries including the Baltic states, Belarus, Finland, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Banko said top officials from energy companies would form teams keeping watch on the functioning of the systems around the clock in each of Russia's 11 time zones from the end of 1999 till early 2000. ($=26.26 roubles) ((Aleksandras Budrys, Moscow newsroom, +7 095 941 8520, moscow.newsroom@reuters.com)) [ELE] [O] [NEL] [RU] [CRU] [NGS] [ELG] [EUROPE] [ASIA] [EEU] [EMRG] [Y2K] [BY] [FI] [UA] [KZ] [LT] [LV] [EE] [LEN] [RTRS]

-- Gordon (g_gecko_69@hotmail.com), November 03, 1999

Answers

How I wish tommorow was the rollover. I cant stand it anymore, we say the Russians are in big trouble then they say they are doing fine.

We say Japan is measurably behind and then a couple days later Japan says they are far ahead of the US.

Africa says not to worry and then a couple days later they say they have just allocated money to begin assesement of their hardware.

Just bring on the rollover, I had enough of the B.S. coming from everyone trying to cover their ass.

-- hamster (hamster@mycage.com), November 03, 1999.

I traded commodities for several years and often dealt in the currencies. Russia's woes in the past cost me immensely when I owned German marks. Yes, Russia is toast and is getting crispier by the day; but when Y2K knocks out GAZPROM and their few remaining exporters, the German market starts crumbling because they have immense investments/loans in Russia. No one cares if Russia fails; but if the German economy takes a major hit; do I really need to go further? Do you like to play dominos?

-- DGBennett (bennett1@peachnet.net), November 03, 1999.

Gordo, I can say from personal experience that they ARE ALMOST TOTALLY ANALOG. These upper level Russian officials are truely spouting the BS, but Russia is currently and never was anything more than a 40s/50s era third world backwater (arms industry excluded). I just posted more details on this on your "From Russia with Love" thread. I really don't know but I think its presumptious to assume they can't go totally manual (unlike us).

Got length??? (oil market)

-- Downstreamer (downstream@bigfoot.com), November 03, 1999.