But the true significance of President Bill Clinton's visit to St Petersburg this week lies not in the abundance of hype surrounding it -- rather in its absence.

Mr Clinton will fly in Thursday, for a day-and-a-half.

With him will travel an entourage of 650 controlers, handlers and advisors, not to mention hundreds of top international journalists.

That's standard. Of course, there is going to be a summit meeting with President Boris Yeltsin and the G7 leaders, including Helmut Kohl and John Major -- but that's in Moscow.

Mr Clinton is coming to St Petersburg not as the president, but as a simple tourist.

The US president is taking a break in the city that enchanted him when he traveled here as a student in January 1970.

Like so many other visitors past and present, he was especially drawn to the State Hermitage Museum.

While here he will visit the Hermitage, the Russian Museum and the Church on the Spilled Blood, just like any regular guy.

And that's what makes Mr Clinton's visit such a big deal.

Mr Clinton is not coming to St Petersburg because he has to. He is coming here simply because he likes it.

The fact that it has been squeezed in at such a time must also endear him to citizens of St Petersburg.

Mr Clinton will come straight from gruelling talks in Korea where he will be seeking to avert war.

He will head straight on to a tough summit in Moscow.

But he has chosen to spend the only break available to him relax in our city.

There's been a lot of international media coverage of how unsafe St Petersburg is.

Many foreigners seem to believe that to land at Pulkovo II Airport minus a flak-jacket is to invite death from a hail of mafia bullets.

Mr Clinton's visit is a real vote of confidence the city of St Petersburg.

That won't go unnoticed around the globe.