PRESIDENT George W Bush praised the spread of democracy among Russia’s neighbours yesterday, heightening tensions with the Kremlin ahead of VE Day celebrations in Moscow tomorrow.

“I will continue to speak as clearly as I can to President (Vladimir) Putin that it is in his country’s interest that there be democracies on his borders,” Bush said during a visit to the former Soviet republic of Latvia.

“Democracies are peaceful countries. Democracies don’t fight each other. Democracies are good neighbours.”

In comments bound to irritate Putin, the American president described the post-war Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe as “one of the greatest wrongs of history”, which brought “communist oppression” to Latvia and its neighbours, Estonia and Lithuania.

He further risked the Kremlin’s displeasure by calling for free elections in Belarus. Aleksandr Lukashenko, its president, is a Putin ally.

“People in that country live under Europe’s last dictatorship and they deserve better,” he said.

Bush will be among more than 50 heads of state travelling to the Russian capital for a spectacular military display modelled on the Red Army’s victorious procession 60 years ago. Eighteen cannons will fire salutes from the hills overlooking the Moscow river and the streets will be decked with 50,000 flags.

The mood of unity has been soured, however, by demands by the three Baltic states that Moscow acknowledge that the defeat of the Nazis paved the way for the annexation of their countries by Stalin.

The presidents of Estonia and Lithuania are boycotting the celebration. Mikhail Saakashvili, the western-leaning Georgian president, is also staying away in protest at Russia’s failure to agree on a timetable for closing Soviet-era military bases in his country.

Bush — who will travel to Georgia as well — will have to carry out a difficult balancing act in Russia. Although keen to maintain good relations with his host, he will press him over Washington’s growing list of grievances.

At a private dinner tonight in Putin’s dacha in the Moscow suburbs, Bush is likely to push for better access to some of Russia’s most sensitive nuclear installations to ensure that money sent by America to improve security there is being properly spent.

He is also expected to voice US displeasure over Moscow’s continued help for Iran’s nuclear programme and its determination to sell strategic missiles to Syria.

Putin, who last month described the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geopolitical tragedy” of the 20th century, has rejected calls for an apology.

The vital role played by the Soviet Union in smashing Nazi Germany, with a loss of almost 27m people, remains a huge source of pride in Russia. Opening two monuments at a memorial park on the outskirts of Moscow yesterday, Putin struck a strident nationalist tone.

“Our people not only defended their homeland, they liberated 11 European countries,” he said, after laying a wreath. “The Nazi war machine was broken on a battlefield from the Barents Sea to the Caucasus.”

Writing in a French newspaper yesterday, the Kremlin leader dismissed Baltic demands for “some kind of repentance from Russia” as a smokescreen to divert attention from mistreatment of their own Russian minorities.

In an interview with American television, Putin criticised Bush’s attempts to spread democracy, saying: “Democracy cannot be exported to some other place. (It) must be a product of internal domestic development in a society.”

Additional reporting: Mark Franchetti, Moscow

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