Russia Won't Cooperate on Y2K Bug By CHRIS ALLBRITTON .c The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) -- In another show of protest over the fighting in Kosovo, Russia's Defense Ministry said Friday it will stop cooperating with the United States on the Y2K computer problem. A ministry spokesman made the announcement to a government committee that is tackling the problem, the Interfax news agency said. In Washington, Sen. Robert F. Bennett, chairman of the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem, urged Russia to reconsider. ``I think it's very shortsighted and potentially dangerous,'' he said. ``It doesn't mean something bad is going to happen. But it means that our chances of preventing something bad from happening just went down.'' Western defense officials have been working with Russia on upgrading its computers for fear that the cash-starved country has not done enough to tackle the millennium bug. Some fear that faulty computers could trigger false alarms on Russia's nuclear early warning systems. Accidental launches of nuclear missiles are highly unlikely, experts in both countries said, but they urged extra precautions until the computer problem is fixed. ``The potential for nuclear accident is very small, but the thing we're finding here is that Y2K problems can kick off human errors,'' Bennett said. ``The best way to make sure some human doesn't make a mistake because of Y2K is mutual and open dialogue.'' As part of the effort, the two countries had planned to station experts in each other's nuclear facilities in the months before and after Jan. 1, 2000. The program was to be mostly U.S.-funded. The Y2K bug occurs because many computers programmed to recognize only the last two digits of a year won't work properly beginning Jan. 1, 2000, when machines will assume it is 1900. Some computers can be reprogrammed, but many devices have embedded microchips that must be replaced.
