I tripped on this and couldn't resist:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Russia/2000-09/2003240900.shtml Triple disaster to 'destroy Russia in 2003' says Duma commission

By Fred Weir in Moscow

24 September 2000

A sunk submarine, a burning television tower and nuclear-plant shutdowns have given Russia a disastrous summer, but that may be just a tiny foretaste of the blizzard of catastrophes feared in 2003.

The prediction comes, not from Nostradamus, but a Russian parliamentary commission hastily assembled to plan for the nightmare foreseen by leading experts. "Russia is afflicted by three fundamental destructive trends, which will converge in 2003 to accelerate and magnify all our problems," says Viktor Opekunov, an MP with the pro-government Unity party and a member of the commission.

Topping the list is Russia's sagging infrastructure, which is said to be collapsing fast. Experts say roads, bridges, railways, the electric power grid, oil pipelines, housing stock and military security systems are all exhausted and increasingly hazardous to health.

Russians were horrified last month when the supposedly unsinkable submarine Kursk went down with all hands during war games in the Barents Sea. Then Ostankino Tower, Europe's highest structure, a wonder of Soviet engineering, caught fire and burned out of control, knocking out television transmission for days.

Electric power blackouts in several Russian regions this month have led to emergency shutdowns at military bases and several nuclear-power plants. Two weeks ago the head of the huge, secret Mayak reprocessing plant in the Ural mountains said his staff's "near-military" vigilance had prevented serious trouble after a power-grid failure.

"We live amid the functioning relics of the Soviet age, as if in a museum, and no one is building anything new," says Alexander Yashin, deputy chair of the parliament's industry and construction committee. "The point of massive, self-sustaining breakdown is approaching within three years.

A study by the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1998 has found that investment in basic infrastructure in the Nineties was barely 25 per cent of the 1989 Soviet-era level. The Ministry of Economics estimates that Russia over the next 20 years needs about five times its annual gross domestic product to modernise its infrastructure.

But in 2003, Russia's external debt will balloon, leaving even less money in government coffers – and there will be a demographic crisis. For more than a decade, low birth rates and a sharp post-Soviet rise in early deaths has led to a dramatic imbalance in the ratio between pensioners and the working-age population. There are three workers for each pensioner, but if nothing is done the figures could be reversed within 20 years.

-- (Lewis@Narnia.Gen.Delivery), October 06, 2000

Answers

communism-god haters reap sour crop!! IT IS WRITTEN!!! *******man proposes---GOD DISPOSES******

-- not surprised (dogs@zianet.com), October 06, 2000.

al-

Maybe you missed it. The Soviet Union died ten years ago. Russia is not communist. It is corrupt and former ommunists are part of the corruption but it is not officially a Godless state.

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), October 06, 2000.

Maybe if John Koskinen gets bored as the DC Dept Mayor, the Russians can hire him to manage their rollover.

The word rollover, used in relation to Russia, has a more somber tone.

-- (what@bout.the children), October 06, 2000.

Oh, great! Russia's collapse will end their space program (yeah, I know the launch pads are in Kazakhstan), then the tsunami from the collapse of the Cumbre Vieja volcano (see thread A collapsing volcano in the Atlantic could unleash a giant wave of water that would swamp the Caribbean and much of the eastern seaboard of the United States) will wipe out Kennedy Space Center.

Don't let your kiddies grow up to be astronauts.

-- No Spam Please (nos_pam_please@hotmail.com), October 07, 2000.

But by then, China will have its space program going.

If your kiddies are gonna grow up to be astro/cosmo-nauts, make sure they learn Chinese.

-- No Spam Please (nos_pam_please@hotmail.com), October 07, 2000.

Sorry, I have been occupied for the past several days. But as per usual; when I come on, I see my name on the lead of a thread (nice to be reembered).

I would suggest however that for survival's sake. You might pay closer attention to the mid east at this moment. Your jests about my "bunker" (of which I have none). Might very well be needed by us all, if the situation over there continues to deteriorate. In any case. It has become serious enough for me to replace all those Y2K supplies that every one ( like little ceeper) said that we would not need.

With my respects.

"As for me...I shall finish the Game"!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shakey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- Shakey (in_a_bunker@forty.feet), October 08, 2000.

Now, Shakey, I'm very, very disappointed with you. You really don't have a bunker? Bummer!

-- E.H. Porter (Just Wondering@about.it), October 08, 2000.

Shakey:

I've seen your tag line about finishing the game for a long time now. Since it's October 8, 2000, when exactly will the game be finished? Will you announce it so that those of us who have been waiting know it happened?

-- Jim Cooke (JJCooke@yahoo.com), October 09, 2000.

Perhaps he is referencing the game of life?

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), October 09, 2000.

hah hah. we ALL finish that game soon enough, lol!

-- (shakey@is.an.idiot), October 09, 2000.

No offense intended, Shakey. I hope none was taken.

There have been times in my life when a bunker began to look like a desirable home-improvement project.

Except for that unpleasant part about actually coming out of it later...

-- (Lewis@Narnia.GenDelivery), October 10, 2000.

Shakey, I would not normally intrude. However, if you have expertise in the oil industry, I was enlightened today, on oil recovery. Hell, I did not wish or desire this, it just happened. Mayhaps you have an industry knowledge, and I have none. Along some side road, I was sent, I learned that the once oil recovery paid a few dollars to the person who brought in the used oil, has now turned into those collection points, who will accept only a few gallons. What happened to those State Refineries, with Tax Dollars? Why would anyone limit (my State) to used oil collection, when I have read the used oil can be made pure again, and recycled? Why would any society waste such a thing, if there were an alternative? I bow, to your expertise and knowledge.

-- Church Fan (Hand@waver.com), October 14, 2000.