Most Y2K bug fears centre on Russia

London - Russia said yesterday it was sure that its vast infrastructure - nuclear arms, reactors and all - was ready for January 1st, but elsewhere the millennium bug began to cast a shadow over the biggest party of all time. Western experts see some of the biggest technical risks in Russia, where the fragility of the infrastructure is matched only by the shortage of cash. However, the Russian military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda said the Strategic Rocket Forces had completed checks on all automatic nuclear missile systems. But this has not stopped neighbouring Finns buying more iodine tablets in two days than they normally do in two years as a precaution against radiation from Russia. Equally sceptical is Turkey, where a senior government official expressed concern over Russian gas supplies at the millennium as well as over nuclear power plants in Ukraine.