Russian President Reaches Out to Nation’s World War II Allies

MOSCOW — President Dmitri A. Medvedev said Monday, at an annual celebration of the defeat of Nazi Germany, that a rising generation of young Russians were “working to reinforce bonds of friendship, cooperation and fraternity” with the countries that fought alongside Russia.

He made the remarks in commemoration of Victory Day, which has become Russia’s major patriotic holiday. Although he did not say which countries he meant, the list of allies includes the United States, Britain, France and Poland.

May 9 arouses reverence in Russia. But it stirs up raw emotions in some former Soviet republics, whose leaders have strained to break free of Russian influence and are not eager to express their gratitude to the Soviet Army.

This dynamic appeared to have set off a brawl in western Ukraine, where Ukrainian nationalists scuffled with a group that had gathered in honor of Victory Day, complete with hammer-and-sickle flags.

In the former Soviet republic of Georgia, officials were angered by a congratulatory message Mr. Medvedev sent over the weekend. It did not address the country’s president, as is customary, but “the citizens of Georgia” — a snub to Mikheil Saakashvili, who is loathed by the Kremlin.

At a wreath-laying ceremony on Sunday, Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze told reporters that Georgians did not accept Mr. Medvedev’s congratulations. “Probably you have noticed that there are no representatives of the Russian Federation here today — this is no accident,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the grandchildren of the people who fought against fascism from 1941 to 1945 used their methods to kick out 400,000 Georgian citizens from their land,” he added, referring to Russia’s military support of separatists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

In Moscow, Mr. Medvedev’s language was magnanimous.

Though much of the celebration hews closely to a script, Russia’s leaders have often folded a geopolitical message into the May 9 event, which culminates in the hauling of intercontinental ballistic missiles before jubilant crowds lining Moscow’s central artery.

It was on this holiday four years ago that Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, then the president, seemed to obliquely compare United States policy to the ideology of the Third Reich, saying contemporary threats showed “the same contempt for human life and the same claims of exceptionality and diktat in the world.” By last year, the United States-Russia relationship had changed enough that Mr. Medvedev invited a small contingent of active-duty American troops to march in the Victory Day parade in recognition of the Allied role.

On Monday, Mr. Medvedev said Russia wanted “an indivisible security system,” presumably referring to Moscow’s proposal for a new European security body that would calm Russian anxieties about NATO. He revived the theme of outreach to Russia’s World War II allies, bucking a long-held Soviet view that the West entered the war only when it was clear which side would win.

“Victory Day was and is our common celebration,” he said.

This year’s parade featured 20,000 troops marching with mathematical precision over the cobblestones of Red Square. When Mr. Medvedev shouted “Hooray,” they responded in unison with a deep roar that sounded less like human voices than an ocean crashing onto the shore.

They passed hundreds of fragile-looking old men, chests heavy with medals commemorating their Red Army service. Yuri M. Gnatyuk, 86, lingered on the square for a while after the camera crews and dignitaries had scattered.

“These are deeds that will live on for centuries,” he said. “Our people endured. They carried all of humanity on their shoulders.”