Russians hit the red button on U.S. ties

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russians queued up in Moscow at the weekend to press -- quite literally -- a reset button on U.S.-Russian relations, a publicity stunt meant to clear the air on the eve of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit.

The stunt centered on the symbolic red button U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in March, urging him to press it to reinvigorate relations between their two nations.

Lavrov was quick to point out that the Americans had mis-spelled the Russian word on the button's label, giving it the meaning of "overload" instead of "reset."

Lavrov lent the button to the state-owned Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper, which installed it on Moscow's Pushkin Square to serve as a kind of geopolitical genie.

Russians queued for the chance to press it and make a wish for better bilateral relations between Moscow and Washington.

"The aim was to let the people on the street express their enthusiasm for a renewal of relations, for clearing all the old hurdles and finding compromises and mutual interests," the paper's editor in chief, Vladislav Fronin, told Reuters.

"What we learned this weekend was that people don't only remember the negative about America," Fronin said. He described an elderly Russian woman who recalled receiving a winter coat and hot chocolate from a U.S. charity after World War Two.

"The main message we were getting is that the people on the street want to hit the reset button. They want normal relations to return," he said.

STREET DIPLOMACY

But an article in the newspaper signaled how heavily memories of the Cold War hang over even the most light-hearted discussion of U.S.-Russian ties.

"For many years, the red button stood for ballistic missiles and the start of World War Three in the consciousness first of Soviet people, and later of Russian people," the paper wrote.

"In Washington it reminded people of the Red Threat, the Red Machine and the Red Telephone which appeared during the Cuban missile crisis," it said, reminding readers of the moment in 1962 when the Soviet Union and the United States came closest to all out war.

Fronin, however, said he was surprised by the overwhelmingly positive associations Russians had as they waited to press the mislabeled button. "It was truly street diplomacy.

"Because the television channels and newspapers reporting these sentiments, I think it will encourage the leaders to take real, concrete steps forward."

(Editing by Richard Balmforth)