RIGA, Latvia — American-Russian relations have rarely been simple, and President Bush's visit to Moscow tomorrow will be no exception.

After all, it's not every day Bush and Kim Jong Il are invited to the same party.

North Korea's leader is not expected to attend Russia's 60th-anniversary commemoration of World War II, but the American president is, and so are a gaggle of former communist dictators.

Bush's decision to accept Vladimir Putin's invitation is creating the potential for political headaches involving new allies in Russia and old anti-Russian allies elsewhere in Eastern Europe.

"It's going to be an interesting dance here," said Leon Aron, a Russian-born scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.

Also attending is the leader of Belarus, which Bush recently called "the last remaining dictatorship in Europe." The president who wants to extend freedom of the world also has criticized democratic reversals in Russia itself.

Bush landed in Latvia late yesterday, the beginning of a five-day trip planned around V-E Day events.

He told a group of foreign journalists this week that those attending the Moscow event, which marks the anniversary of Germany's World War II surrender, "know how I feel about tyrants and dictatorship."

"I've made my position very clear, and I view this as a celebration to end tyranny."

In the meantime, Bush will spend his next four days traveling through Latvia, The Netherlands, Russia and Georgia, where he wraps up on Tuesday.

The president wants to maintain good personal relations with Putin, though that may not be so easy on this trip — Putin and aides are upset that Bush is bookending his trip with speeches in Latvia and Georgia, former Soviet properties that have little but disdain for Russia.

On the other hand, Bush also may be looking to soothe the feelings of Latvia and other Baltic allies which, when they think about the Soviet victory in World War II, see the start of decades of communist repression.

"The legacy of World War II is complex," said analyst Fiona Hill, a senior fellow in foreign-policy studies at the Brookings Institution.

In meeting the leaders of all three Baltic states — Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia — Bush will confront the hard feelings the Russian war ceremony has stirred up in the neighborhood.

The leaders of Lithuania and Estonia declined to attend Putin's parade. Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga is going, but said "reconciliation is not an easy task — it may take a long time."

Bush told the overseas journalists he is aware "the Baltics ended up with a form of government they weren't happy with" after World War II, but that everyone should focus on the modern rise of democracy.

In putting together the itinerary for this trip, the Bush administration did not want to forget allies in Western Europe, hence a side trip to the Netherlands. He will lay a wreath tomorrow at The Netherlands-American Cemetery in Margraten.

Bush plans to discuss democracy and civil society during his beginning and ending speeches in Latvia and Georgia, comments that may well be interpreted as jabs at the Putin presidency.

"A visit to Latvia and a visit to Georgia is to say to Putin and the Russians, 'These countries are now outside your sphere of influence and you had better get used to it,' " said Charles Kupchan, an international-relations specialist at Georgetown University.

Bush and aides said the Latvian and Georgian trips are not aimed at sending a message to Putin or Russia, where Bush arrives tomorrow.

The Red Square military parade to commemorate World War II is set for Monday.

National security adviser Stephen Hadley said the trip is designed to celebrate the defeat of Nazism and communism, as well as "the advent of what we're beginning to see ... a Europe whole and free, where democracy and freedom are increasingly practiced by all the states."

Bush does plan to again challenge what he sees as diplomatic backsliding in Russia. He plans to dine with Putin tomorrow, but it is unclear whether the two will appear together in public.

The two leaders shadowboxed anew this week.

"I understand there's a lot of people in the Baltics who ... don't view the celebration in Russia as a day of liberation," Bush told Latvian National Television. "I can understand why some leaders of countries aren't going and some others are."

In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that's scheduled to air tomorrow, Putin bristled at suggestions that he's backsliding on his commitment to encourage democracy in Russia.

Putin cited the U.S. Electoral College system and the disputed 2000 presidential election as evidence that Russia could be considered "even more democratic" than the United States.

"In the United States, you first elect the electors and then they vote for the presidential candidates. In Russia, the president is elected through the direct vote of the whole population. That might be even more democratic," Putin told journalist Mike Wallace.

"And you have other problems in your elections," he added. "Four years ago, your presidential election was decided by the court."

Putin also questioned Bush's effort to bring democracy to Iraq.

"Democracy cannot be exported to some other place," he said.

White House officials brushed off Russian criticism of Bush's trip to the Baltics. Today, Bush will lay a wreath at a freedom monument in Riga. The monument served as a symbol of Latvian opposition to the Soviet-installed government that ruled the country from the end of World War II until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Bush also will visit a museum filled with exhibits about the horrors of life under Nazi and Soviet domination. He is expected to urge Latvians to end discrimination against Latvia's minority Russian population.

Bush said last week that after a February meeting in Slovakia, Putin "stood up and said he strongly supports democracy. I take him for his word."

Some critics see the celebration as a bid to resurrect the image of the Soviet Union. "It's becoming a glorification of the Soviet Union," said Ronald Asmus, executive director of the Transatlantic Center for the German Marshall Fund of the United States. "This is no longer the clear-cut and simple trip they thought it was when they agreed to it."

Information from Knight Ridder Newspapers is included in this report.