MOSCOW – President Bush will join President Putin and about 50 other world leaders in Moscow Monday for massive celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the Red Army’s defeat of Nazi Germany on the eastern front.

For Russia, the celebrations will be a chance to highlight its decisive role in defeating the Nazis – a role many here believe is overlooked in the West, despite the death of more than 27 million Soviet soldiers and civilians in what it calls the Great Patriotic War. But in a reminder that the shadow of the Cold War still looms large over this part of the world, several Eastern European states are taking part reluctantly or not at all.

The presidents of Lithuania and Estonia – both forcefully incorporated into the Soviet Union following the ouster of the Nazis from their countries in 1944 – have pointedly refused Mr. Putin’s invitation. The Latvian president, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, will attend but has said she will remind participants that the day also marks 60 years since her country “was forced to live under a totalitarian system for the next half-century.” The Polish president, Alexander Kwasniewski, will be attending, but has called for Russia to atone for the Soviet occupation of Poland after the war and atrocities committed by the Red Army, in particular the massacre of 22,000 Polish officers in the Katyn Forest in 1940.

Russian officials have reacted with indignation to critics. In an interview published this week, the defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, said: “When some now argue over whether we did or did not occupy other countries, I feel like asking them: ‘And what would have become of you if we hadn’t broken the back of fascism – would you still exist as a people?’ “

In a move likely to anger the Kremlin, Mr. Bush waded into the debate this week. In a letter sent to Mrs. Vike-Freiberga, he said he respected the decisions of some leaders not to attend the event.

“In Western Europe, the end of World War II meant liberation. In Central and Eastern Europe, the war also marked the Soviet occupation and annexation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and the imposition of communism,” he wrote.

Mr. Bush had already rankled the Kremlin by book-ending his trip to Moscow on Sunday and Monday with visits to Latvia, where he will meet all three Baltic leaders, and Georgia, which, along with Ukraine, has overthrown pro-Moscow governments in peaceful revolutions.

“This could be viewed as a kind of slap in Russia’s face,” a prominent political analyst, Vyacheslav Nikonov, told the Interfax news agency. “It’s as if Putin would go to Washington with a stopover in Havana, and after that he would fly to Pyongyang.”

Observers are anxious to see if Mr. Bush, who has grown increasingly critical of Mr. Putin’s record on democracy, will reiterate his concerns during this visit.

Russian officials have called on world leaders to put aside political differences in a show of respect for veterans.

“For Russia, it is above all the commemoration of those who gave their lives on battlefields and an expression of gratitude to war veterans who upset plans for annihilating or enslaving whole nations,” the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said.

The invitation-only celebrations will include a military parade and concerts on Red Square and a lavish reception at the Kremlin. Among other guests expected are Chinese President Hu Jintao, French President Chirac, German Chancellor Schroeder, Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi, and U.N. Secretary-General Annan. Mr. Bush will likely be looking to keep his distance from some guests, including the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il – both heads of countries declared “outposts of tyranny” by his administration.

Russian security services are making an unprecedented show of force for the event, with more than 20,000 soldiers and police patrolling the streets. Much of central Moscow will be closed to the public on Monday, and anti-aircraft missile batteries will have orders to shoot down planes breaking the no-fly zone over the city. Still, worries over potential terrorist attacks remain. Chechen separatists have frequently targeted May 9 celebrations in the past, including last year’s bombing of a stadium in the Chechen capital Grozny that killed the republic’s then-president, Akhmad Kadyrov, and five others.