By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, May 28, 2002; Page A15

While traveling in Europe this past week, President Bush proposed a novel plan for dealing with Russia's old nuclear weapons. He said industrialized countries would pay $20 billion "to help Russia securitize the dismantled nuclear warheads."

Many people assumed Bush misspoke and intended to "secure" the nuclear material. Presumably he did not mean the literal definition of "securitize," which is to turn a commodity into a stock that can be traded -- Russian nukes on the Chicago Board of Trade.

The phrase was one of several artful ones Bush employed in his European tour. At the U.S. ambassador's home in Moscow, he weighed in on an issue involving the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson wrote about "inalienable" rights. Linguists have suggested that "unalienable" is the proper word. Bush offered a third possibility: "uninalienable rights."

At other points, Bush brought his Texas folksiness to the capitals of Europe. Arriving for a caviar dinner at Russian President Vladimir Putin's country residence, Bush viewed the immaculate grounds and told his host: "Nice of you to mow the grass for us." At the French president's palace, he noted that Jacques Chirac is "always saying that the food here is fantastic."

But if snobs in Europe still doubt the U.S. president's smarts, Putin is not among them. After a quick tour of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Putin said he had showed Bush a portrait of Catherine the Great. "And Mr. Bush, without missing a beat, said, 'Oh, and by the way, where is the portrait of Potemkin?' "

That's a sure sign Bush is, to use a word he coined in Paris, an "intercontinental" gentleman.

At the request of the Secret Service, security throughout Europe has been even more extraordinary than for past presidential visits. Authorities generally clear the streets of people within several blocks of Bush. Asked whether he missed interaction with the common folk, Bush replied, "I live in a bubble. . . . That's just life."

Even Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was caught in the security web keeping people from the president. While Bush's motorcade made its way into the Putin residence, 25 minutes west of Moscow, security guards let Bush pass but stopped the limousine containing Powell, Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans and Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. The high-ranking officials were detained for 10 minutes until, after a series of frantic phone calls, the Russians were convinced that they posed no danger. As Powell noted later, "My bubble isn't as big as the president's bubble."

For lower-level U.S. officials and the White House press corps, of course, there is no bubble whatsoever. And getting into the presidential bubble presents ever more exotic challenges.

To get to Bush's news conference with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Berlin, the German government required visitors first to visit the German Press and Information Ministry, where they were required to show a pass, circle the ground floor, show the pass again and descend into a basement corridor leading to a tunnel, where German police performed security screening. Then, they boarded new buses, were ordered to switch buses once again, and waited in the tunnel for another half hour.

The Russians did the Germans one better. When the press plane arrived in Moscow, Russian authorities detained the Americans at the airport for a 90-minute "procedure" in which they collected and confiscated each person's passport. The confiscated passports presented a problem the next morning at the Kremlin, where Russian officials required attendees at the arms treaty signing to present -- their passports.

In addition, large numbers of correspondents, including Moscow-based American reporters, were turned away at the Kremlin gates because they were not on a "list" that had been circulated -- in Berlin. A Secret Service agent and U.S. military officials were also told "nyet." People on the "list," once arriving at the hall for the signing ceremony, were also blocked from entering. "Too late," a Russian official said. "Full." U.S. Embassy officials finally persuaded the Russians to relent moments before the signing. The hall was mostly empty.

President Bush's father, when he was in the White House, introduced the world to "speed golf," involving a breathless race through 18 holes. The younger Bush, on his European trip, practiced a variation: robo-tourism.

After a lunch inside the Kremlin, Bush and Putin, with their wives, took a stroll of the Kremlin's Cathedral Square, a treasure chest of churches and historic points. "It's really beautiful," Bush remarked to a group of lucky tourists (they had been through metal detectors and were thus exempt from the presidential "bubble" restraints). The tour was scheduled to last 30 minutes. After seven minutes, Bush and Putin went back to Putin's office.

Rapid tourism has become something of a custom for Bush. In Beijing, he raced up and down the Great Wall so fast the first lady intervened to slow him down. On Saturday in St. Petersburg, though, there was no holding Bush back. He visited the Hermitage -- which has 14 miles of corridors and some of the world's greatest art -- in half an hour. His St. Petersburg trip also included a church (15 minutes), a synagogue (20 minutes), the Russian Museum (30 minutes) and a boat cruise (one hour, 15 minutes).

The highlight of robo-tourism, though, came Saturday night at the ballet. Bush attended "The Nutcracker" at Mariinsky Hall. The 1 hour, 40-minute performance, according to a consular official in attendance, was abridged from the original to accommodate the president's schedule.