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March 31, 1999
Web posted at: 4:37 p.m. EST (2137 GMT)

by James Niccolai

(IDG) -- An official at Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs couldn't confirm or deny reports that his country had changed its year 2000 cooperation plans with the U.S. but said he found the situation highly unlikely.

"I haven't seen a declaration that our government has the intention of interrupting our cooperation in this domain," said the official, who asked not to be named.

"I think that the development of year 2000 cooperation may [ultimately] depend on the situation with the Kosovo crisis. But for the moment, any disruption of our cooperation in this area would not be constructive," the official added.

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There were reports last week that Russia's defense ministry said it would cease cooperating with the U.S. military on preparations for possible year 2000 computer problems -- apparently in a show of protest over NATO's military intervention in Kosovo, Yugoslavia.

The two countries have been developing a proposal to station officials at each other's nuclear facilities during the months before and after Jan. 1, with the goal of preventing any false alarms if a software problem in an early warning system indicates that a nuclear strike has been launched.

The countries are also involved in a joint effort to make computers year 2000-compliant at several Soviet-designed nuclear power plants located throughout Eastern Europe.

In a statement last Friday, Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah), chairman of a government committee examining the year 2000 issue, called Russia's reported action "a short-sighted and dangerous thing to do."

U.S. officials have frequently cited concerns regarding lack of preparedness in Russia, as well as worries that the computer problem will trigger a false alarm indicating a nuclear attack is under way. The Senate committee and several other U.S. government offices contacted this week, including the Pentagon and the State Department, said they haven't received any official notification of Russia's actions. A spokesman at the National Security Council declined to comment.

(Tom Diederich of Computerworld, an IDG News Service affiliate, contributed to this article).