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| The two men have clashed over Russia's war
legacy |
More than 50 world leaders, including President
George W Bush, are in Moscow to pay tribute to the Soviet people's sacrifice
in World War II.
The ceremony in Red Square is the latest in a series of events across
Europe marking the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi
Germany.
Mr Bush will be the first US president to attend a Red Square parade.
But his visit has been overshadowed by disagreements with Russia's
Vladimir Putin over the legacy of the war.
The two men discussed the issue on Sunday at a private dinner, one day
after Mr Bush had publicly described the Soviet occupation of Eastern
Europe as "one of the greatest wrongs of history".
That remark had prompted the Russian president to respond that it was
the Soviet Union which had saved the world from defeat by the Nazis.
"For three long years, the Soviet army in fact
almost single-handedly battled against fascism
," Mr Putin told veterans from Russia and other
former Soviet republics in an address at the Bolshoi Theatre on Sunday.
More than 40 million people had lost their lives by the time World War
II ended in Europe on 8 May 1945, including 27 million from the Soviet
Union.
Other world leaders expected at Monday's ceremony
in Moscow include French President Jacques Chirac and Germany's Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder.
(BBC) | 
Updated: 2005-05-09 11:12
