Russia says missiles are cleared of millennium bugs

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MOSCOW (August 12, 1998 2:06 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Sleep easy. The millennium bug which doomsayers say could melt down the world's computer-run transport and financial systems will, at least, not trigger World War III.

So Marshal Igor Sergeyev, Russia's defence minister, said on Wednesday, denying U.S. suggestions that Moscow's vast and underfunded nuclear arsenal could be launched into action by a simple computer glitch at the dawn of the third millennium.

Sergeyev should know. Until joining the government last year, he was the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces. But he gave no secrets away at a news conference in Moscow.

"This problem affects more those spheres where mass-market computer technology is used. In Russia's Strategic Missile forces, there is no risk because special computer technology is used," he said.

Quite how special, he would not say. He gave no indication of why it was not affected by the millennium bug, a fault in which computer software first developed in the 1960s and 70s fails to recognise the year 2000 and thinks it is back in 1900.

American officials have voiced concerns that, a decade after the end of the Cold War, the bug could trigger an unintended Russian nuclear attack by blanking out command computers and panicking officers into suspecting an enemy first strike.

Two months ago U.S. Defence Secretary William Cohen offered Sergeyev American expertise and ideas to help Russia handle the issue. Russia told Washington it did not have a problem.