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, AP reported.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.

Accidental launches of nuclear missiles are highly unlikely, experts in both countries said, but they urged extra precautions until the computer problem is fixed. 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 U.S. Federal Reserve is distributing billions of new dollars to cover a possible run on the banks due to fears of a Y2K calamity, officials said on Saturday.

U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said the money would be on hand if people wanted it, but that he was confident the U.S. banking system would be untouched by computer problems associated with the arrival of the year 2000.

"The Federal Reserve Bank is literally printing up billions of dollars to have available on the belief that people are going to pull cash out of the bank," Gramm said in a news conference.

Backyard bank accounts?
"We could literally have Americans pull billions of dollars in cash out of the banks and store this cash in their automobile, their home, in their backyards, waiting to see what is going to happen when the date becomes Jan. 1 of the year 2000," he said. "I want to urge people to put it out of their minds that they need to take all this money out," Gramm said. "We feel very confident about the banking system -- don't worry about the banking system."

Gramm said government officials were concerned that there will be an increase in money-related crimes if people have more cash than usual. Texas Banking Commissioner Catherine Ghiglieri said Y2K scams were already beginning to pop up.

Scams a-plenty
"We had one elderly lady who took out $60,000 and buried it her backyard. The next day it had been dug up. We think it was her family that convinced her to put the money out there," she said.

While Gramm expressed confidence in the U.S. banking system, he was less certain about how the problem was being dealt with in Mexico and Central America, which are important U.S. trading partners. "I'm not worried about us getting this right [because] we've got tremendous resources," he said. "I'm worried about developing countries, and obviously the most important developing country in the world to us is Mexico."

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank president Robert McTeer said the problem could be less pronounced in developing countries because they rely more on cash transactions than electronic.

An offical from the CIA yesterday said that there could be "serious disruptions, including breakdowns in nuclear reactors and strategic missile systems, midwinter power outages and disruptions in world trade and oil shipments."

During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, he reportedly said however "that gaps in information make it hard to assess the scope of the damage in other countries, although it is evident that most countries, particularly Russia, are far behind the United States in preparing for the crisis."

U.S. military war game simulations to deal with "assistance that federal agencies and National Guard units might expect of the nation's defense force" after possible Y2K computer failures, codenamed "Operation Positive Response," are scheduled from April through September.

"Once an emergency has been declared, soldiers on active duty can be deployed as directed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA] which chairs the emergency-sector working group of the president’s Y2K council. Previous hearings, officials also have raised the possibility of martial law in response to disruptions in electric power..."

UPI reported today on the now widespread news of a soon-to-be-released Senate report on the Y2K problem which the Washington Post said described coming Y2K problems as a "worldwide crisis" and as "one of the most serious and potentially devastating events this nation has ever encountered."

The news appeared on the front page of today’s edition of USA Today as welll as other media sources around the world. Regardless of the actual effects or disruptions felt by Y2K computer problems, it seems the press and government’s attempts to quell panic by constantly saying that there will be little or no affect on society has backfired.

The government agency that deals with disasters, FEMA, has been preparing for a potential Y2K emergency. The Deputy Director of the federal agency was quoted as saying, "Given the current level of information available, we should prepare for Y2K as we prudently prepare every year for a potential winter storm."

"FEMA and other federal agencies are also meeting with state and local emergency managers to determine who's ready for Y2K and who is not...Meanwhile, FEMA has planned a national Y2K readiness exercise for June."