Armed with a whistle and carrying close to 20,000 rubles under her coat, Irina Tereshina, 42, heads out with a partner to deliver pensions for the Russian federal post office. Jobs like Tereshina's are virtually the only legitimate positions left at the post office f and pensions almost the only thing Russians still trust their mail service to deliver. Postal service has become a never-ending disappointment in post-Soviet Russia. Mailboxes are receptacles for newspapers, phone bills and junk mail f but rarely anything of value. An intense passion could fade away by the time a teary-eyed girl gets her long-awaited love letter. A distant family could see the ruble plunge to a tenth of its value waiting for the cash their young working son has sent from the city. Andthe package of sweaters and socks that a grandmother spent months lovingly knitting is unlikely to ever reach its intended destination. ""The Russian post office doesn't need to worry anymore about good service, and the customers don't care.