As US President George W. Bush seeks to promote democracy around the globe, he paused to pay tribute yesterday to the sacrifice made by World War II soldiers who never came home from their fight against tyranny.
Bush was to spend yesterday, the 60th anniversary of the May 1945 signing of the Berlin armistice that ended the war in Europe, at the continent's third-largest cemetery for US veterans near here in Margraten.
"The alliance that won the war is remembered today in carefully tended cemeteries in Normandy, Margraten, St. Petersburg, and other places across Europe, where we recall brief lives of great honor," Bush said Saturday in Riga, Latvia. "We offer this pledge: We will always be grateful."
Bush was to finish the day in Moscow, where he and dozens of other world leaders are attending today's Red Square victory celebration that Russian President Vladimir Putin is staging on the day Russians regard as the V-E Day anniversary.
Bush and Putin were to meet last night, a day after the US president used a speech in the Baltic nation of Latvia to not-so-subtly nudge Russia to own up to its wartime past. In Russia, victory in the "Great Patriot War" is treasured as an unvarnished triumph, while many of Russia's neighbors see the Red Army's success as only the start of 50 years of brutal Soviet oppression.
Anger over that unacknowledged history remains potent in the Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithunia and Estonia, annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 and given independence 14 years ago. With his stop in Latvia on the way to Moscow, including a meeting there with the leaders of all three Baltic states, Bush underscored their continuing grievances against Russia and offered a US model of acknowledging past mistakes as an example for Putin to follow.
"No good purpose is served by stirring up fears and exploiting old rivalries in this region," Bush said of Russia. "The interests of Russia and all nations are served by the growth of freedom that leads to prosperity and peace."
Bush has promised that such matters, part of Washington's broader concerns about Putin's commitment to democracy, will come up when the two meet -- first formally, then over dinner with their wives -- at the Russian leader's dacha.
There are a host of other items on the agenda for the leaders whose cooperation is crucial, such as stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons materials.
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