"He's so handsome. He's so tall. He's so smart," said Olya Sviridova, 63, nearly trembling after a chance encounter with one of America's most important politicians. "It was the president, wasn't it? What's his last name? Bush?"


Poor Al Gore. Even in Russia, it's tough being vice president.


Gore and his wife Tipper toured GUM, the dowager empress of Russian shopping, after a brief walk around Red Square on Thursday afternoon. The Tennessee native is in Moscow for a series of talks with Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, but no visit is complete without a little shopping po-Russki.


GUM's center aisle was decked out for the dignitaries. The Agio Tea Company -- a firm from Singapore selling Indian tea -- had a whole spread laid out for the Veep.


"Are we supposed to drink the tea?" Gore asked his clutch of handlers. He was. And he did. One lump. Tipper, too, tipped back a cobalt blue teacup. "Spasibo bolshoye," Gore bellowed. "Isn't tea chai in Russian?" Tipper asked.


Of course, there is very little Russian shopping to be done at GUM, whose initials stand for State Department Store. As the second couple strolled GUM's center aisle, they passed French pots and pans, pomade from Paris and tea from the Asian subcontinent.


"There are an awful lot of new stores here since the last time I was here," Gore said.


The notoriously wooden vice president boogied a bit when serenaded by 32 voices from the fourth, fifth and sixth grades of Moscow School No. 170. Katya Matveyenko, 12, grabbed him by hands, right there in the middle of the department store, and left him no choice.


"You liked our children, didn't you?" music teacher Viktoria Gvozdovskaya said, half asking, half telling. Katya also presented Gore with a box of minerals she and her classmates collected during geology expeditions around the country.


As the shopping blitz continued -- nothing was actually bought or sold during the 15-minute walkabout -- Gore stopped for a while to shake hands and meet the people. Not many people, but more than Queen Elizabeth II was allowed to meet while she strolled around a sanitized Red Square two months ago.


Sviridova, who has worked on GUM's housekeeping crew for 32 years, has likely heard the names of several American leaders, but she seems to recall the cold warriors best. As she and Gore shook hands, she wished him a happy New Year, but threw in a few nostalgic greetings as well. They were the kind of thoughts you might express to someone like, say, George Bush. "All I ask for is peace on Earth," she said. "I mean, we're all humans, aren't we?"