[tex-live] verbatim

[yuri.nefedov at gmail.com]

  I am using Debian-etch(2005.dfsg.3-1) Tex-live
  and I am having trouble with the verbatim package.

  Consider the following example:
  -------------------------------------
\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[english,russian]{babel}             % (***)

\usepackage{verbatim}                           % (***)

\makeatletter
\renewcommand*{\verbatim at font}{\ttfamily\small} % (***)
\makeatother

\begin{document}
\begin{verbatim}
         while (--nlines >= 0)
\end{verbatim}
\end{document}
  -------------------------------------

  The graphical output is
         while (-nlines >= 0)
  (one minus!)

  If I comment any line marked with (***)
  the problem disappears.

  What is wrong in my example?

  Yuri.