As World Leaders Watch, Putin Honors Soviet War Sacrifices

MOSCOW, May 9 - President Vladimir V. Putin, joined by President Bush and dozens of other leaders, commemorated the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany today with a resplendent military parade in Red Square that was steeped in Soviet symbols and new Russian pride.

"The lessons of the war send us the warning that indifference, temporizing and playing accomplice to violence inevitably lead to terrible tragedies on a planetary scale," he said. "Faced with the real threat of terrorism today, we must therefore remain faithful to the memory of our fathers. It is our duty to defend a world order based on security and justice and on a new culture of relations among nations that will not allow a repeat of any war, neither cold nor hot."

Despite concerns here and abroad about Russia's commitment to democracy, Mr. Putin assembled one of the largest gatherings of world leaders in years in what was effectively part of the Kremlin's efforts to resurrect a sense of a great and powerful Russia. Among 57 dignitaries were leaders of the victorious and the vanquished nations of the war, among them Chancellor Gerhard Schröeder of Germany, President Jacques Chirac of France, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan and Hu Jintao of China.

Mr. Bush, customarily the center of attention even at international summits, had a seat of honor next to Mr. Putin, but he did not speak publicly during today's events, effectively ceding the stage to the Russian leader and the pageantry of the day's celebration.

After a private meeting and dinner on Sunday night, the two men appeared determined to display their collegiality and mutual respect, despite diplomatic tensions over American advocacy of democracy in Russia and its neighbors and pointed rancor over Mr. Bush's itinerary on this trip. Russian officials bristled over his visits to Latvia and Georgia, two former Soviet republics that have tense relations with Russia. Mr. Bush left Moscow for Georgia later today.

Mr. Bush spoke animatedly with Mr. Putin as thousands of Russian soldiers and war veterans paraded across the cobblestones of Red Square and again as they walked with other leaders to the nearby Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where they laid red carnations.

After Mr. Putin concluded his speech and returned to his seat, Mr. Bush appeared to compliment him. A senior White House advisor, Dan Bartlett, said that Mr. Bush felt no discomfort about appearing in a tableau of Soviet imagery, including flowing banners bearing the hammer and sickle and a parade that evoked past Soviet celebrations - absent the tanks and missiles.

Mr. Putin paid tribute to the veterans of all Allied nations, but emphasized that the greatest sacrifices of the war were paid by the citizens of the Soviet Union, who persevered despite the deaths of 27 million.

"Through the liberation of Europe and the battle of Berlin, the Red Army brought the war to its victorious conclusion," Mr. Putin said, indirectly but unmistakably brushing aside recent objections by officials in Poland and the Baltics who argued that Hitler's defeat resulted not in liberation, but suppression under a different ideology. Before and during his trip to Latvia, Mr. Bush had endorsed that.

While Mr. Putin used the 60th anniversary of Victory Day - celebrated a day after the formal surrender of Nazi Germany - to rally Russians behind what is arguably the Soviet Union's greatest achievement, the celebrations managed to stir rancor.

The presidents of Lithuania and Estonia refused the Kremlin's invitation. So did President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia, whose popular uprising against Eduard A. Shevardnadze in November 2003 inspired similar ones following flawed elections in two other former Soviet republics, Ukraine last fall and Kyrgyzstan in March.

In Russia, the anniversary brought protests. Some 30 members of the nationalist party Motherland were detained outside Latvia's Embassy in Moscow, where they were protesting the visit of that country's president, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, who has angered many Russians by criticizing the Soviet occupation of the Baltics after the war.

In a separate demonstration that turned raucous, several hundred protesters clashed with police officers in riot gear near the Belaruskaya train station, a few miles northwest of Red Square. At least 50 protesters were detained there, the radio station Ekho Moskvy reported, prompting clashes with the police through the afternoon. Many complained that the official ceremonies had effectively shut out ordinary Russians, including most veterans.

"Putin is a fascist," shouted one of the demonstrators, a member of the radical National Bolshevik Party.

After the parade on Red Square and a lunch in the Kremlin, Mr. Putin held meetings with his counterparts, including Mr. Hu of China and Mr. Koizumi of Japan, a country that, officially, is still at war with Russia and remains divided over the return of the Kuriles.

Today's commemoration took place in the shadow of another war: the grinding conflict in Chechnya. Fearing terrorist attacks from Chechnya's separatist fighters, the authorities closed much of the city's center and urged Muscovites to avoid the city altogether, spending the holiday instead at their dachas, or country houses.


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